72 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



possession of rhizomes (underground stems) by many species, their 

 powers of reproduction are something phenomenal, and they can 

 easily out-distance most of their competitors. Underground stems 

 must be a distinct advantage as a protection against fires to those 

 plants that possess them. The dried-up stems of the grasses form 

 by far the greater part of the inflammable material on which the 

 fires are fed, and in this respect alone their presence must have a 

 very marked influence on the lives of the trees associating with 

 them. Persons who have witnessed a savannah fire at close range, 

 especially where the grasses are represented by gigantic forms 

 such as Imperata arundinacea or Saccharum spontaneum, are 

 alone capable of realising to their fullest extent the magnitude 

 and fierceness of the flames. Those due to the burning of the 

 ordinary layer of leaves found under trees with the deciduous 

 habit are quite insignificant and negligible in comparison. 



The exposure of the soil to the sun and hot winds after the fires 

 have burnt oft: the protective covering of leaves and other vegetable 

 debris, results in a deterioration of its fertility, which is further 

 decreased when the rain from the tornadoes that immediately 

 follow the fire season sweeps away the ashes into the nearest 

 stream, and this process is repeated annually. Taken as a whole, 

 the grasses, when existing in any large numbers, are a very 

 decided menace to tree growth, both directly and indirectly. 

 Woodland and grassland formations are always opposed to each 

 other, and there is a continuous and fierce struggle between them to 

 gain possession of the land. 



In the "fringing" belts of vegetation, which are in- 

 variably confined to the immediate vicinity of the water- 

 courses, moist depressions, and swamps, certain species from 

 the evergreen, moist forest regions near the coast make their 

 reappearance not in the subordinate position in which they arc 

 usually found in the latter, but as dominant types. The most 

 conspicuous examples amongst the trees are Carapa guianenxi*. 

 Berlinia acuminata, Hicinodendron africanus, a species of Cyno- 

 inctra close to C. Mannii, and Pterocarpus esculentus; whilst other 

 species not met with at all in the evergreen coastal forests occur 

 here : they are Mimusops multinervis (a good timber tree), an 

 ebony (Diospyros mespilifonnis} , a small apocynaceous tree (Poly- 

 adoa umbellata}, and a species of Schrebera close to S. golun- 

 gensis. A tree characteristic of the swamps in the dry open 

 country is Mitragyne africana, a near relative of which (M . macro- 

 phylla) occupies similar localities in the forest region further 

 south. 



Of course, in addition to the above-mentioned plants, others 

 common to both the evergreen tropical forests and the mixed deci- 

 duous ones are also found in the fringing forests. The most 

 CHIIIMIOII arc: Sterculia Borlcri, Sicrculiti to/nentosa, S. conli- 

 folia, the Odoum (Chlorophora excelsa), the mahoganies, Khaya 

 Puncliii and Khaya grandis, the silk-cotton tree, Eriodendron 

 anfnn-1 nosum, Cola Afzel/i, Glyphaea grewioides, Xanthoteylum 

 senegalensc, Spondias hitea, Piptadenia africana, Termiiwliu 

 scutifera, T. Brownii, Cassia fistula, Mimosa asperata, Albizzia 

 Brownei, A. fastigiata, Randia maculata, Usteria guineensis,and 

 Spathodea campanulata. 



