PREFACE. 



The seventh volume of the Flora of Tropical Africa was completed in 

 1898. The circumstances under which the work was resumed are stated 

 in the preface. 



The choice of the next instalment to be taken up was mainly- 

 determined by the assistance I was able to secure from contributors. 

 Ainongst these I am more especially indebted to my friend Mr. C. B. 

 Clarke, F.R.S., who not merely undertook the difficult task of elabora- 

 ting the Acanthacem, which occupy half the volume, but made a journey 

 to Berlin to study the material preserved in the herbarium of the Royal 

 Botanic Museum. 



For the amended definition of the regions into which the area of the 

 flora is divided reference may be made to the preface to the seventh 

 volume. 



In the prefaces to the first and seventh volumes will be found an 

 enumeration of the materials employed up to 1868 and of the most 

 important additions to them which have reached Kew since. The only 

 further collections at Kew cited in the present volume are : — 



III. Nile Land. J. Theodore Bent. Collection from the coast 

 region of Nubia in 1895-6. (Died 1897.) 



IV. Lower Guinea. Dr. Ch. Bommer, Brussels. A collection of 

 Lindner's Damaraland plants. 



VI. Mozambique. Professor C. Fritsch, Graz. A collection made 

 in the Zambesi Valley at Boruma by Father L. Menyharth, S. J. (Died 

 1899.) 



The present volume was ready for the press at the beginning of 



