154 COLONIAL REPORTS MISCELLANEOUS. 



flowers and leaves; otherwise very great confusion is liable to 

 occur. 



The specimens should, as soon as possible after being 

 thoroughly pressed and dried, be forwarded to the Director of 

 the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, with a request that they be 

 identified and a list of the identifications sent to the officer who 

 made the collection. The latter person should keep duplicates of 

 the specimens forwarded to Europe, and they should bear the 

 same numbers as the originals. He will then have specimens 

 that have been identified by specialists to refer to from time to 

 time as the occasion requires. The duplicates will of course be 

 named in accordance with the identification lists sent from Kew. 

 The duplicates should be kept with great care in some central 

 office, like that of the Conservators or of the Provincial Forest 

 Officers. 



Representative samples of timber of all the forest trees of the 

 Gold 'Coast are very much required for the purpose of making 1 a 

 comprehensive study of these woods. The samples should be pro- 

 cured from thoroughly seasoned timber and the botanical identi- 

 fication of tlie tree yielding tlie latter tliouhl in -each caxe be 

 ascertained from Kew and placed absolutely beyond any shadow 

 of doubt. 



Certain species of trees to be found on the Gold Coast and 

 Ashaiiti are so plentiful that every effort should be made to 

 introduce them to and place them on the home markets, because, 

 if a demand for them can be created, the supply is almost inex- 

 haustible and a trade in them will enhance the value of the 

 forests to a very considerable extent. 



The most important species in this respect are the Waw-waw 

 (Triplochiton Johnsonii) and the Dahornah (Piptadenia africana). 

 Both of them yield excellent timber, and that of the latter has 

 lately attracted the attention of some timber brokers in the Liver- 

 pool market. It will be well worth the while of Government to 

 place some carefully seasoned and good logs of these woods on 

 that market with a view to introducing them to the notice of 

 the timber merchants. Messrs. Elder Dempster & 'Co., are 

 always willing to carry such samples to Europe in their steamers 

 free of all charges. Undoubtedly the best way of seasoning this 

 and almost all tropical woods is to ring bark or girdle the trees 

 and let them remain standing in the forest for two years or so, 

 till they have died and the wood has become seasoned. The 

 trees are by this method killed very gradually and the seasoning 

 of the timber is thus carried out in a very effective manner. 

 When ' ringing " the tree, care should be taken to completely 

 cut through the sap-wood all round and right into the heart- 

 wood. The slightest strip of uncut sap-wood will often enable 

 the tree to linger on for years before it dies. In trees that 

 possess no very distinct sap-wood the " ringing " will have to be 

 carried oui to a great depth all round and as far inwards as' the 

 zone of the dry dead wood, close to the centre of the tree. 



It has been found in Southern Nigeria that by girdling or 

 ringing mahogany and cedar trees not only is the timber pro- 

 perly seasoned and rendered easier to float, but it is far less 



