86 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



tlic grass that covers most of the plain, reminding one much of a 

 densely planted orchard in Europe. The trees, however, gene- 

 rally attain a much greater height than one finds in an ore-hard, 

 and in this respect the resemblance is closer to thickly timbered 

 park land. 



In depressions where the soil is rich and deep but not sufficiently 

 moist. to support evergreen vegetation, the deciduous-leafed trees 

 attain good proportions ; they grow closer together, have fine, 

 clean, straight stems, and resemble in density of stock a mature 

 oak wood at home, or the better class of dry deciduous forests of 

 Central India and Central Burma. 



The annual fires appear to do but little damage in these well- 

 wooded areas, and the natural regeneration of the species inhabit- 

 ing them is excellent and far more satisfactory than that usually 

 met with in the dense evergreen forests of the regions having a 

 heavier rainfall. 



Where the soil is shallow, resting on outcrops of rock, or where 

 other impermeable pans are situated close to the surface, the tree 

 growth is poor, the plants are gnarled and much twisted, and 

 suffer greatly from the annual fires that sweep over the country. 

 Another variant occurs in localities where a substratum of stag- 

 nant water exists and the soil appears to be acid. Here vegeta- 

 tion, excepting the grasses, is very meagre, and we thus get the 

 beautiful grassy glades so common in some parts of the open forest 

 country. 



A large proportion of the trees inhabiting the " dry zone," to 

 which these plains belong, have developed a very thick corky layer 

 of bark ; this, no doubt, serves to protect the sterns against injury 

 from fire and drought. 



The most marked difference between this type of vegetation and 

 that inhabiting the moist regions, with a rainfall of 50 inches 

 a year and over, is the extreme paucity in variety of species 

 characteristic of the former. The comparatively few species, how- 

 ever, that do occur here are numerous in individuals, and they 

 very often show a tendency towards the gregarious habit. Other 

 differences are the dominance of the grasses and the satisfactory 

 state of the natural regeneration in the open forests. 



The species characteristic of this type of forest are amongst 

 the trees : - 



The balsam copaiba tree (Daniella thurifera), the Senegal rose- 

 wood (Pterocarpus erinaceus), the cutch tree (Acacia Catechu), 

 Acacia Sieberiana, Acacia nigrescens, or a closely related species, 

 the Papoa (Afzelia africana), a fine timber tree, the " dry zone 

 cedar (Pseudocedrela Kotschyi), the "dry zone' 1 mahogany 

 (Khaya senegalensis), Ormosia laxifiora, Detariuni senegalense, 

 another good timber tree, the " sass wood " or ordeal tree (Ery- 

 throphloeum guincense), which furnishes a good timber; one of 

 the so-called " African oaks ' (Lophira alata), the seeds of 

 which are rich in vegetable oils, and the timber of which is 

 extremely durable ; it is a congener of the Kaltu (Lophira procera), 

 from the moist evergreen forests of the maritime zone ; a species 

 of Terminal/La; a species of Dalbergiaj the Yoruba " chew-stick" 



