PREFACE. Vii 



over which this country has recently acquired an influence and he 

 would therefore suggest that the completion of the work in question 

 should at once be carried out. 



*' I am, &c., 



*' (Signed) T. V. Lister. 

 '■The Director, Kew Gardens." 



In replying to this letter I pointed out that my scientific staff was 

 so occupied with routine work that it was impossible to treat the com- 

 pletion of the Flora as a matter of official duty. If, however, as in the 

 first instance, it was regarded as an extra-official undertaking, I 

 was willing to do my best, with such voluntary assistance as I could 

 obtain, to assist Her Majesty's Government in getting the work com- 

 pleted. It was accordingly agreed that a commencement should be 

 made in 1892. Much preliminary labour had to be accomplished, and 

 in order to avoid the inconvenience of anticipation, provisional technical 

 descriptions of new African plants received at Kew were drawn up by 

 members of the staff and officially published in the Kew Bulletin. 

 These were available for working up subsequently in the Flora. The 

 number of species so published up to the present date amounts to 

 upwards of 800. 



A list of the known plants occurring in British Central Africa, 

 amounting to upwards of 1,800, compiled from the Kew records by a 

 member of the Kew staff, Mr. I. H. Burkill, M. A., is printed in Sir H. H. 

 Johnston's " British Central Africa," pp. 2oo-284, prefaced by a brief 

 history of botanical exploration in the Protectorate (see Kew Bulletin, 

 1897, pp. 170-171). It is estimated that the number of species would 

 be increased by the intercalation of recent additions to 2,500. 



As to the general scope of the work, it will be convenient to quote 

 the following passage from Professor Oliver's preface to the first 

 volume. It still in great measure holds good : — 



" From our very imperfect knowledge of the vegetation of many 

 parts of the continent, even of those which have been long more or less 

 in European occupation, and from our complete ignorance of that of 

 the immensely larger area not yet opened up, the present work must 

 not be regarded as presenting anything like a complete account of 

 Tropical African Botany. It serves rather as a vehicle for the 

 publication of the important botanical results of much recent expendi- 

 ture of life, toil, and money^ which would otherwise have been lost to 

 science or anticipated by other nations, and (embracing references to 

 all hitherto published African species) as a repertory which it is hoped 

 may be useful to botanists, no less than to future explorers and 

 residents in Africa interested in the natural productions and economic 

 products of the country." 



In the mode of execution the pattern of the published volumes has 

 been closely adhered to. I may again quote Professor OUver's 

 preface : — 



" The * Flora of Tropical Africa,' forming one of the series of 

 Floras undertaken, at the instance of the late Sir William J. 



