24 COLONIAL 11EPOKTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



Alhi::iti, probably .1. rhombi/olia, not seen, in the Gaiyin Krom, 

 occurs here. This species is rather partial to the drier portions 

 of the moist forests, and, with some others of the same genus, 

 is much more plentiful in the forests further north, where a 

 larger proportion of trees with the deciduous habit are to be 

 found. 



South-east of the saw-mill, along 1 the old road to iShama 

 and close to the site of Nicholas Krom, the forest is very old 

 and contains some trees of lofty growth and a large girth. 

 Some fine examples of the Kokoti (Pynaertia ealaensis) were 

 shown to me by Mr. Brett in this forest, where we^also noticed ;i 

 fair number of the ordinary Gold Coast mahogany (K/uri/n species), 

 the Odouni and the Kaku. Very large examples of the Baku 

 and the ordinary silk-cotton tree (Eriodendron anfractuosum) 

 are found here and there, and the undergrowth in such places 

 is not so thick and tangled as it is in the younger secondary 

 forests. The rubber-yielding vine, Landolphia Klainei is quite 

 common ; its huge globular fruit, almost the size of a man's 

 head, were often found lying about the path. 



Close to the banks of a fairly large perennial stream the 

 vegetation is very fine, and is a typical example of a Tropical 

 Evergreen High Forest, or, as Dr. A. F. W. Schimper calls it, 

 a " Tropical Rain Forest" of West Africa. The forest in ques- 

 tion is bathed in the same humid atmosphere, containing trees 

 of lofty growth connected one with another by lianes and a 

 perfect network of smaller climbers; the stems are covered 

 with epiphytes of various descriptions, and under all the same 

 dense gloomy shade 'with its tangled Undergrowth prevails 

 as in the type. 



JOURNEY ACROSS THE LOWER VALLEYS or THE ANKOBRA AND TANO 

 RIVERS THROUGH THE DISTRICTS OF LOWER WAS SAW, UPPER 

 WAS SAW, LOWER DENKIRA, AND THENCE BACK TO THE RAILWAY 

 LINE AT DUNKW T A. 



The carriers engaged for me having arrived, I proceeded on 

 the 2()th of January by rail to Tarkwa, where I met Mr. K. 

 Burbridge, Curator of the Gardens, who had been instructed to 

 accompany me during my journeys through the Gold Coast 

 forests. One day was taken up in completing arrangements, and 

 we left that place on the 22nd for an extended tour through the 

 Wassaw and Lower Denkira districts in directions which I hoped 

 would enable us to form a fair estimate of the value and extent 

 of the forests clothing the lower and middle drainage areas of 

 the Tano and Ankobra rivers. 



Before describing that journey in detail, I may remark that 

 the railway-line between, the saw-mills and Tarkwa passes 

 through nmi>t evergreen tropical forest the whole way, and that 

 the country is hilly and Avell watered --most of the valleys being 

 occupied either 'by perennial streams or fresh-water swamps. 



In the neighbourhood d ihe more important villages such as 

 Mansu and A^uaso extensive clearings have been made for farms, 

 the abandoned sites of which are now mainly occupied by the 



