’ 
316 
the Gutu natives that they plant it “ to make the other crops grow.” 
According to him 100 kilogr. of dried grass with a water content of 
10 per cent. contain— ; 
1°3 kilogr. N corresponding to 6°5 kilogr. sulphate of ammonia. 
$08 KO _ » 40 ,, chloride of potassium. 
O08: 5 PU, i , 1°94, superphosphate. 
OS ge: Dl 
The best method of propagating the grass is probably by dividing 
the clumps or from cuttings. No mature seeds have come to hand 
so far. Searching the ample material of P. purpureum at Kew I 
came across one grain only, and this was not quite mature. Whether 
this means that the grass actually seeds rarely, or whether it may 
be that the grains escaped the collectors owing to the extreme 
readiness with which the spikelets with their involucres detach 
themselves, I am unable to say. ; " 
XXXVII—ACCESSION OF TROPICAL AFRICAN 
PLANTS FROM 1907-1912. 
the 
last 54 years (from January Ist, 1907, to July 1st, 1912), haa been 
drawn up by the Assistant for Africa. 
The total number of specimens in these collections, excluding 
duplicates, is 22,286, of which 16,434 were presented and 5852 
purchased. This is an increase of 7659 compared. with the number 
received during the previous seven years (cf. K.B. 1907, p. 237). 
About 18,000 were received for determination, and each collection, 
except in a few cases, was dealt with on arrival, More than three- 
fourths of the specimens received have been named and mounted 
and have been incorporated or are ready for incorporation in the 
general herbarium. 
Comparatively little has been published on these collections. 
Those oo which belong to the families published in the parts 
of the Flora of Tropical Africa issued during the same period 
have as usual been recorded in that work. Many new species which 
have been worked out have been described in various numbers of 
the Kew Bulletin, and the following papers have been published 
in the same wor = rees of the North-eastern Transvaal, by 
C. E. Legat (K.B. 1910, pp. 49-55); Notes on the Botanical 
Resources of Yola Province, Northern Nigeria, by Dr. J. M. 
Dalziel (K.B. 1910, pp. 133-142). The latter paper contains 
descriptions of three new species. ; 
Allen, C. BE. F.: Rhodesia, 242 i 
Cath te WA rey specimens (unnamed), partly collected 
Anderson, J.: Gold Coast, 58 specimens (unnamed), | 
Appleton, Lt.-Col. A. F.: Rhodesia and Portuguese East Africa, 
65 specimens, mostly Gramineae and Cyperaceae (unnamed). 
Barraud, Miss: British East Africa and Pemba Island, 30 specimens 
(unnamed), : 
