I.! COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



literally covered with a beautiful bloom of pink blossoms, and 

 formed a conspicuous object. 



Between Bantama and Kwamaug the forest is on the average 

 much younger and of secondary growth. The Waw-waw is 

 becoming more dominant than ever about here and completely 

 outnumbers any other species. The usual trees of this type of 

 infest were met with, including a few Khayas and Pseudocedrclas 

 and an increasing proportion of the larger species of Piptadenui. 

 Extensive patches of a large bamboo (Dendrocalamus ? sp.) were 

 seen near the streams forming the water supply of the villages. 



The forests clothing the main water-parting and the subsi- 

 diary ridge are well worth taking up as reserves. The secondary 

 growth should be left for the farms. 



The Forests in the Drainage Area of the Lower Tano River. 



Between the villages of Akikere and Tomento, which latter 

 is situated close to the banks of the Tano River, the country, in 

 a north-westerly direction from the former, is hilly and much 

 broken, but is not dominated by any important ranges. At 

 about two-thirds of the total distance between Akikere and 

 the Tano is situated the large and important town of Asaukagwa, 

 quite the largest we have seen west of the railway-line. The 

 adjacent country is also occupied by numerous small villages, 

 so that the total population inhabiting a comparatively small 

 area is fairly large and has in accordance with the wasteful 

 system of cultivation adopted by the natives necessitated exten- 

 sive clearings in the forests from time to time. These clearings 

 or their now overgrown sites are often found at a long distance 

 from the inhabited centres, and account for the very irregular, 

 patchy condition of the forests passed through. 



Generally speaking the forests are comparatively young and of 

 secondary growth that has sprung up from time to time on the 

 abandoned areas. Here and there, however, where for some 

 reason or another the land has not been taken up for farms, belts 

 and patches of much older high forest are to be met with ; in 

 such localities trees of economic importance are fairly plentiful, 

 and include the ordinary Dubini (mahogany), the two species 

 of Pseudocedrela usually found in. the tropical evergreen forests 

 of this zone, the Odoum (Chlorophora excdsa), the Baku 

 (Mimusops Djave), the Bosse, the Pebedinn, the Asiadua or gum 

 copal tree (Cyanothyrsus ogea), and a species of TricJiilia that is 

 not uncommon in the corresponding forests of Southern Nigeria. 



During the last few days indications had not been wanting of 

 a gradual change in the climatic conditions prevailing in this 

 part of the country. From Akikere onwards the forest vegeta- 

 tion, though still of the tropical evergreen type, showed unmis- 

 takeable signs of being invaded to a much greater extent by 

 species that are at their optimum in regions characterized either 

 by a mai'kedly smaller annual rainfall or, in the event of the 

 rainfall being still sufficiently high to satisfy under ordinary 

 circumstances the wants of the typical tropical evergreen vege- 

 tation, by a climate of which the dry season is longer and more 

 pronounced. 



