Vlll INTRODUCTION 



every year. Several are even known to bloom four times in the 

 year, while on the other hand some cauliflorous trees only blossom 

 eA'ery two or three years. Natives, whose information in other 

 cases proved trustwortliy, declared that certain ones only fiowei 

 once in seven years. 



The number of different species to be found in these forests is 

 immense and may be computed to average at least 400 to 500 

 distinct species to the square mile. Among these are to be found 

 a large number of valuable economic trees, such as cam-wood, 

 ebony, i-ubbers and mahoganies of enormous size, scented and 

 otherwise. The state of age gradation among all such trees is 

 more satisfactory too in this district than that in the greater 

 part of the Protectorate. 



The annual rainfall, cax-efully kept during my tenure of office, 

 averages 175 inches, and the humidity may be a contributory 

 cause to the extraordinary lai'ge number of cauliflorous trees. 

 The unusual rainfall and the heavy dews, which last all through 

 the dry season, act too as protective agents in rendering impossible 

 destruction by forest fires. 



A very considerable part of the district has at one time or 

 other been under cultivation. The sj^stem of farming consists in 

 roughly clearing the land in Janviary and February, by cutting 

 and burning the smaller growth, while the great trees are left 

 standing. This has, however, aflfected the type of forest less 

 than would otherwise have been the case, owing partly to the 

 scanty population, about four to the square mile, and also to the 

 large number of trees, which, according to the superstition of 

 the people, must neither be destroyed nor planted, but left 

 untroubled by human interference. A considerable part of the 

 land may be regarded as virgin bush, and is perhaps the only 

 important survival of that vast primeval belt, which once 

 extended over the greater part of South Kigeria. 



In order to be convinced that the forests of Oban are to a 

 great extent true primary foi-est one has only to leave a native 

 path in the remote parts of the interior and cut one's way for a 

 short distance through the tangle of lianes, often of the girth of 

 our Northern tree-trunks, which hang between giant boles, 200 to 

 300 feet high, and, in the case of cotton trees, over 80 feet in cir- 

 cumference. Once the path has been lost sight of, one maj'' wander 

 for days without coming aci'oss a trace of human habitation. 



P. AMAURY TALBOT. 



