G4 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



'I'll is distribution of the annual precipitations has made 

 its eft'ects felt on the vegetation clothing these two por- 

 tions of the l>asin of that river, with the result that 

 in the former (left bank drainage) there is a tendency, 

 despite the generally drier strain running through the 

 forests, for them to revert, especially between Mini and 

 Keuyase Mohang, where the streams are all crowded together 

 within a comparatively short space, to the moister evergreen 

 type in which /\*eudocedrela utilis, and another species, the 

 TiamarTiama, of the same genus, together with the ordinary 

 /\ Ini i/a (Dubini of the natives) as well as Khaya antliotlieca, are 

 still to be found. 



Other species noticed were the Off ram, Odoum, Kokoti, and a 

 few Piptadenias. On the right bank drainage, however, and even 

 in the drier portions of the left bank side, species such as the 

 Duakobin, Afzelia africana, Sterculia Barteri, S. cordifolia, S. 

 lotnentosa, Albizzia Brownei, and another species, Xylia Evansii 

 and Tetrapleura Thonningii are very abundant. From such areas 

 the Khayas have practically disappeared, and Pseudocedrelas are 

 only found here and there as very subordinate members of the 

 forest vegetation. 



Funt umia elastica is still found scattered about the forests, but 

 not in any large numbers. Rubber-yielding vines such as Carpo- 

 d-inus hirsute, Landolphia owariensis, L. Thompson?., and another 

 species occur pretty frequently in the more open portions of the 

 forest. 



The Forests at the Head-waters of the Ba River. 



Between Techerabini and Pamo another water-parting is 

 crossed. It divides the basin of the Bia from that of the Komoe 

 River, the latter being the most important river draining the 

 eastern portions of the French possessions on the Ivory Coast. 

 One of its large feeders, the Ba River, rises on the main ridge 

 referred to above as forming the backbone of the country about 

 here, and it was this portion (at the head waters of the Ba) of the 

 Komoe system that was traversed by us in our journey from Pamo 

 to Pulianio. The divide is ascended very gradually, and one 

 hardly realises from the general character of the country that an 

 important watershed is being crossed. 



The difference in the forest vegetation, however, became more 

 pronounced, and we at last entered the typical mixed, deciduous 

 forests as found in those portions of tropical West Africa with 

 which I am acquainted. The chief characteristic of this type is 

 the rather high percentage (25 to 50 per cent.) of leaf-shedding 

 trees to be met in it. Not only do new species with the deciduous 

 hal)it make their appearance, but some of the trees ordinarily met 

 witl. in the moist evergreen forests, where they are mainly ever- 

 green in habit, become more pronouncedly leaf-shedding ; the re- 

 sult is that these mixed forests, in the' dry season especially, 

 acquire that peculiar patchy colour of grays intermingled with 

 various shades of green that is so noticeable in this type, the gray 

 colouring being due to the leafless crowns of trees that have 

 acquired the deciduous habit. 



