NIGERIA 203 



scrambling undershrubs added thereto, while the edge of such a meadow 

 or " fadama " is in some cases fringed with deciduous high woods, in 

 which occasionally timbers like Khaya Senegalensis and Paradaniellia 

 Oliveri may appear along with the vegetation characteristic of Type 1 . 



4. Evergreen Fringing Belts. 



Along the water-courses which intersect the savannah lands will 

 be found dark evergreen strips of foliage, which, when extending 

 beyond the stream-banks and forming a fairly dense canopy, whatever 

 the nature of the underwood, are generally implied in the Hausa word 

 " kurumi." The streams may not be always truly perennial, but the 

 verdure remains because the moisture in the soil persists long enough 

 to maintain the non-deciduous type, although bush-fires may reach 

 their very margins. Where a perennial stream of any magnitude 

 occurs, species will be found whose distribution in the Soudan Zone 

 is confined to such localities, but which are widely represented in the 

 South. 



Instead of enumerating the constituents of these strips of fringing 

 forest, we may briefly refer to the vegetation of the River Benue, which 

 has been already indicated as in some degree marking the boundary 

 between the semi-evergreen or mixed deciduous forests and the drier 

 tree savannah and open bush lands. The evergreen galleries along 

 the streams or fringing the swampy glades may be taken as on the 

 whole botanically similar to the bank foliage of the Benue and its 

 backwaters, creeks and tributaries. One feature of this type is the 

 abundance of woody climbers, often concealing the foliage of their 

 supports, and conspicuous to the eye in the flowering season are the 

 Combretacece, which are here scrambling and climbing shrubs instead 

 of erect trees, e.g. the flame-flowered Combretum racemosum, C. con- 

 strictum, etc., Quisqualis Indica and others ; also two or three species 

 of Landolphia with other rubber vines, and of Musscenda, scarlet- 

 fruited Connaracece, Uncaria Africana, climbing by its old flower-stalks 

 becoming woody hooks, and Alchornea cordata, the most typical liane 

 of these formations. Other twiners are the showy moon-convolvulus, 

 Calonyction speciosum {Ipomcea bona-nox), the Cowhage, Mucuna 

 pruriensis, Dioclea reflexa, Entada scandens and numerous Ampelideoe. 

 These tend to form a dense and sometimes impenetrable tangle, but 

 where trees of timber size occur the undergrowth is more scanty and 

 a variety of forest weeds appear, in which the Scitaminece may be 

 prominent. 



The Benue region is rich in trees, of which the following species 

 may be mentioned : Goron ruwa, Irvingia Smithii, and Gedar kurumi, 

 Pterocarpus esculentus, Trichilia retusa, the large timber tree called 

 Kiriyar kurumi (undetermined), Erythrophlocum Guineense, Millettia 

 sp., Sanagana and M. sericeuSy Cynometra Vogelii, Anthocleisfa 



