GOLD COAST REPORT ON FORESTS. 179 



Another good long- fibre is yielded by the plant Honckenya 

 fid folia. 



The seeds of Lophira procera are rich in vegetable oils. 



C. The Monsoon or Mixed Deciduous Forests. 



This is a formation that is very rich in plants of economic im- 

 portance. It is inhabited by both Tropophilous and Hygrophil- 

 ous plants in varying' proportions, according to local fluctuations 

 in the rainfall and edaphic conditions. The forests, on the whole, 

 are greener than the typical monsoon forests of India, Burma, and 

 Siarn, and contain fewer species with the Tropophilous habit; 

 nevertheless, owing to the complete, or nearly complete, defolia- 

 tion of the latter during the dry season the West African type is 

 easily distinguished at that season of the year from the true rain 

 or moist tropical evergreen forests. Forests exactly similar in 

 habit to the mixed deciduous forests of Eastern Asia are, as far 

 as my experience goes, very rarely met with, and then only as 

 insignificant belts in, tropical West Africa. 



The Indian formation is more closely approached, on the other 

 hand, by the denser stocked savannah forests of this coast, but 

 here the grasses form a more prominent feature of the formation 

 than occurs in the case of the Indian type with which I am com- 

 paring it. Generally speaking, in Tropical West Africa the 

 transition between the rain forests and the savannah forests is 

 more abrupt than it is in those parts of Asia with which I am 

 acquainted. This is probably accounted for by the prolonged 

 dry season experienced over extensive areas in the former con- 

 tinent, whereas, on the Gold Coast and in Southern Nigeria, up to 

 the 8 parallel of north latitude at all events, that season is 

 tempered by frequent showers of rain during the tornado months 

 which coincide with the vegetative periods of the grasses, and 

 thus favours them at the expense of forest growth. In other 

 words, owing to this feature of the climate, as soon as an area 

 becomes, from the reduction in the annual rainfall, unsuitable 

 for luxuriant forest growth, it is appropriated by the grasses in- 

 stead of by the intermediate stage represented by the typical 

 monsoon forests. 



Perhaps good examples of the latter occur in the drier portions 

 of the Northern Territories and Northern Nigeria. 



A large number of the evergreens found in the mixed deciduous 

 forests of the Gold Coast belong identically to the same species as 

 those met with in the rain forest. They are, however, generally 

 found growing in the moist soils close to the banks of streams, or 

 in sheltered ravines, and on the northern aspects of the hills, 

 whilst the deciduous-leafed species occupy mainly the drier soils 

 further back from the streams and the exposed southern and wes- 

 tern aspects of the hills. The mixture of Tropophilous with 

 Hygrophilous species is more one of groups of each type than of a 

 true intermingling of individual trees of each kind. 



It may be that the more pronounced, dry Harmattan winds met 

 with in the higher latitudes (from 7 '>0' N. and upwards) during 



