CHAPTER XIV 

 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WEST AFRICAN FORESTS 



1. Historical. 



One of the first books was Forestry in West Africa, by Sir Alfred 

 Maloney, a former Governor of Lagos, which was published in 1887. 

 This is a most interesting and readable book, and, for the time it was 

 written, gives a very good account of many of the forest trees. It 

 is also much to Sir A. Maloney's credit that teak, Tectona grandis, was 

 introduced into Nigeria at that time. 



In The Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termina- 

 tion of the Niger, by Richard and John Lander, only very vague 

 descriptions of the forests are given, and it is therefore not of much 

 value from the Forestry point of view, though it is a most enter- 

 taining description of the people and their doings at that time. 



2. Botanical. 



From 1868 onwards. Flora of Tropical Africa appeared ; so far 

 eight volumes have been published. This work was planned by the 

 late Sir William J. Hooker and edited first of all by Daniel Oliver, and 

 subsequently by Sir W. T. Thistleton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., CLE., and 

 now by Lieut. -Colonel D. Prain, the Director of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Kew. It is, of course, very scientific, accurate and botanical, 

 but has very dry descriptions of many of the African trees and plants 

 and no illustrations are contained in these octavo volumes. What 

 also makes it harder to use this Flora is the fact that since 1868 many 

 new plants have been named, and some of the names of the old plants 

 have been altered. A most useful chapter on Elementary Botany 

 is contained at the beginning of Vol. I. This is to some extent 

 also a glossary of botanical terms, but of course it cannot take the 

 place of A Glossary of Botanic Terms, by D. G. Jackson, 1905. 



In many ways a much more useful book to the forester is Engler's 

 Monographien der Pflanzenfamilien, of which eight volumes have 

 appeared : 



I. Moracese, excluding Ficus. 

 II. Melastomacese. 

 III. Combretaceae Combretum. 

 IV. Combretaceae, excluding Combretum. 



