37^ 



NATURE 



[November 17, 192 1 



there are dense tracts of forest or bush which act 

 as a barrier; the native plantations also ai-e' 

 usually small. In the Cameroon Province the 

 plantations are more or less continuous, so that 

 the risk of the spread of disease is ever present, 



Fig. I. — Ambas Bay, showing the seaward face of the Victoria Botanic Gardens which cover the 

 promontory on which Government House can be seen crowning the summit. View looking to 

 the south. — The trolley line from Victoria to Beta (the starting-point of the Biiea Railway) is 

 seen running at the foot of the cliff, which is the highest point of the gardens at the Bota end. 

 The Limbe river, which traverses the gardens, enters the sea near the end of the promontory. 



and the prosperity of the plantations depends very 

 largely on the maintenance of an adequate scien- 

 tific staff. 



It is no doubt unfortunate for many reasons 

 that the Cameroon Province, with the noble 

 Cameroon Mountain, explored as 

 long ago as December, 1861, by 

 Sir Richard Burton and Mr. G. 

 Mann, lies at one end of Nigeria, 

 while Lagos and the head- 

 quarters of the Nigerian Agri- 

 cultural Department at Ibadan 

 lie far away near the Western 

 border. Except by sea, communi- 

 cation between Ibadan and Vic- 

 toria is at present well-nigh im- 

 possible, so that the proper 

 development of the Victoria Gar- 

 dens as a centre for research in 

 ■connection with or under the con- 

 trol of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment of Nigeria, if this should be 

 deemed essential, affords problems 

 of considerable adminstrative diflfi- 

 culty. 



While desiring to urge very 

 strongly that the Victoria Gar- 

 dens should be restored and main- 

 tained as a botanic garden fully equipped for 

 tropical research in problems of soil chemistry, 

 mycology, entomology, and plant-breeding, we 

 would point out that research of this character 

 belongs to a scientific institution, such as the 

 NO. 2716, VOL. 108] 



gardens should be, rather than to an agricultural 

 department, the function of which is purely techni- 

 cal and is concerned in the main with investiga- 

 tion and instruction. 



The Victoria Gardens could be made the main 

 centre for research in West 

 x'\frica, and would be able to 

 furnish results of immense value 

 to the various agricultural de- 

 partments ; but we would urge 

 that it should be established 

 rather in connection with the 

 Agricultural Department of Ni- 

 geria than under its direct 

 control. 



Reference has been made to 

 the building which served as 

 an agricultural school, and we 

 would lay stress on the im- 

 portance of such a school for 

 the training of native agricultur- 

 ists in a province like the Camer- 

 oons, with its large plantations. 

 The value of such schools has 

 been demonstrated in the West 

 Indies and elsewhere, and with 

 plantations demanding a large 

 amount of skilled native labour a 

 school attached to a scientific in- 

 stitute can scarcely fail to produce 

 results of very great benefit, 

 of the narrative under review 

 strengthens the conviction which we formed on 

 reading His Excellency's address, that "it would 

 be a lasting discredit" were we "to neglect to 

 repair the damage " which the gardens have 



The perusal 



Fig. 2. — Pineapple plantation in the Victoiia Botanic Gardens on the east side of the Limbe river. 



suffered and, we may add, were we to neglect the 

 magnificent opportunity afforded us, with our 

 great West African responsibilities, of maintain- 

 ing them as a centre of scientific research in the 

 tropics. 



