6t> COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



Hakes and leaves the under portions, which are of a yellowish 

 \vliilr colour, exposed. The timber is yellow, and resembles satin 

 wood in grain and lustre. Specimens of the wood of either this 

 species or a closely related one from Southern Nigeria have, when 

 figured, commanded very good prices in the home market, as much 

 as Sd. per superficial foot. The Duakobin is one of the numerous 

 >pi>cies of timber trees that holds a very subordinate position in 

 the moisi, tropical evergreen forest close to the sea, and yet comes 

 to the front as a dominant species in the drier mixed deciduous 

 forests. It is found in small numbers throughout the moist 

 forests of Ashanti and in the Western Province of the Colony. 



Associated with this species in the mixed, deciduous forests 

 are Xi/lia Eransii (very common), Afzclia africana, All>i::ia, 

 Broirni'i , . 1. faslif/iata, Chlorophora excelsa, Terminalia superba, 

 Sicrc/tl/a cortU folia, Triplochiton Johnsonii, Pynaertia ealnen*!'*, 

 the E in rll (Terminalia species), Eriodendron anfractuosum, and 

 in the moister portions a few Funtumia elastica. Some of the 

 villages we passed through on our way to Tuna had their houses 

 thatched with grass a sure sign that the open savannah forests 

 were not far off. One very extensive patch of grass land, contain- 

 ing several examples of a tree, Vitex megaphylla, was seen close 

 to the latter village. The last but one of the more extensive belts 

 of evergreen forest (growing on well-watered, alluvial soil) was 

 passed through during this portion of the journey. It contained 

 some enormous Pseudocedrelas and a few Khayas, as well as the 

 usual species found in such forests. 



One of the most noticeable features about this belt of evergreen 

 forest was the plague of thousands of blood-sucking flies (species 

 of Hacmatopota) that settled on one in swarms and drove every- 

 one, including the carriers, nearly mad with their bites. They 

 were two species one black with some white on the wings and 

 legs, and the other a pale brown. The former was met with in 

 small numbers in the forests of the Bia River basin as well, and 

 the latter extends into the dry, open savannah country during the 

 rainy season. B\it nowhere else have I found both species so 

 numerous and such a nuisance as they are in the evergreen belt 

 mentioned above; unlike the tsetses (Glossina) and flies of the 

 genus Tabanus, they are very soft, and at once succumb to the 

 lightest pressure or knock. 



I M-t \\een Tuna and Puliamo we crossed alternate belts of forest 

 and open savannahs, the former covering as a rule larger tracts of 

 country to begin with and then gradually getting smaller in ex- 

 tent till close to Puliamo, where it gives way to an extensive patch 

 of open savannah country some few square miles in extent. Here 

 we found in places Acacia Catechu, Dichrostachysnutans,Entada 

 toudanica, Vilc.r ci/ncata, and a dwarf species of Ficu*. The 

 Forest belts contained Eriodendron anfractuosum, Afronnoxiu 

 laxiflora, .\ylia Kransii, Chlorophora excelsa, Terminalia 

 tuperba, a species of Pseudocedrela, Sterculia cordi folia, and 

 ( 'oln . 1 ficlii . 



We obtained very fine views of the high range of hills to the 

 west, along the French border, from this open country. 



