Liberia *- 



in the Congo Basin in the very heart of Central Africa. The 

 bread fruit (Artocarptts), which is one of the commonest trees 

 now seen on the Liberian coast, was introduced by the first 

 American colonists. It is of course a native of the Pacific. 



The Liberian forests and their outskirts contain many 

 striking forms of the Arum order. One of the commonest 

 is the ordinary West African Anchomanes. This may be noticed 



231. OIL 1'ALMs (l-.LAIs) 



first of all in the fully developed type of leaf, which rises on 

 a slender prickly stem to a height of two or three feet. 

 Instead of presenting an undivided outline of the usual arrow- 

 head character, the leaf is split up into numerous unequal-sized 

 leaflets, giving any one, not a botanist, the impression that it 

 is a cluster of independent leaves growing from a number of 

 separate stalks. At first sight no one would take this to be 

 an aroid. The long stalk of this curiously divided leaf rises 



554 



