CHAPTER XXI 



OTHER FLORA OF THE COLONY, ITS DISTRIBUTION 

 AND NATURE 



THE vegetation of tropical West Africa ap- 

 pears to be more luxuriant north than 

 south of the Equator at similar latitudes. 



The dense forest met with along the Cameroons 

 and Muni coasts, from 6 north of the Equator, 

 ceases 100 miles or so south of it, near Cape 

 Lopez ; at Sierra Leone, Konakry, Bathurst, 

 and Dakar, north of the Equator, the vegetation 

 is more luxuriant than at points of corresponding 

 latitude like Loanda, Novo Redondo, Benguella, 

 and Mossamedes in the south in fact, while at 

 Dakar the vegetation is still fairly vigorous, at 

 Mossamedes there is desert. 



If the Angolan coast is arid, the interior is 

 beautiful, with a landscape of hill, plateau, and 

 valley ; grass, savannah, and open forest ; with 

 areas of richer forest and belts of denser bush 

 where the fertility of the soil or the moisture 

 of the river valley have produced their floral 

 wealth. 



The vegetation is naturally more luxuriant in 

 the rainy anu no Her north and north- west oi' II. < 



