GOLD COAST REPORT ON FORESTS. 185 



(/.) Fibre plants. 



In addition to the various species of Urena, Triumfetta, 

 Sida, Hibiscus, &c., that are herbaceous and suitable more 

 for cultivation as agricultural crops than as forest ones, the 

 following two trees yield very good fibres : 



Sterculia Barteri (from the bast). 



Raphia vinifera. 



Indigo is obtained from Lonchocarpus cyanescens. 



The above list shows how rich the monsoon forests are in valu- 

 able species. Doubtless many more will be discovered as the 

 forests get better known. 



On the whole the age gradations of the timber trees in this type 

 are more satisfactorily represented than they are in the rain 

 forests. 



The species 'most characteristic of the monsoon forests are : 

 Sterculia cordi folia. 

 Sterculia Barteri. 

 Sterculia tomentosa. 

 Cola Afzelii. 

 Spondias lutea. 

 Albizzia fastigiata. 

 Cassia fistula. 

 LoncJiocarpus cyanescens. 

 Erythrina tomentosa. 

 Afrormosia laxiflora. 

 Dialium guineense, &c., &c. 



Their occurrence anywhere is a certain index that the climate 

 of that locality corresponds to the requirements of the monsoon 

 forests. 



D. The Savannah Forests. 



This in brief is a park-like formation, rich in terrestrial herbs 

 and more particularly in grasses. The tree growth is represented 

 by arboreal tropophytes and evergreen xerophytes, but the latter 

 are not numerous, and form an insignificant proportion of the 

 vegetation. The density of stock, so far as the trees are con- 

 cerned, varies in accordance with the nature of the soil and its 

 telluric properties. On stiff laterite formations the trees arc- 

 dwarfed, gnarled, and widely scattered, whilst alluvial hollows 

 and the narrower valleys are much more densely stocked, but 

 never to the extent seen in the monsoon or mixed deciduous 

 forests. Where the supply of telluric moisture is copious, how- 

 ever, fringing forests of great density occupy the soil, and they 

 frequently contain species characteristic of the monsoon and even 

 of the rain forests. The outcrops of laterite and metamorphic 

 rocks so frequently met with in Northern Ashanti and in the 

 Hinterland of Southern Nigeria are usually encircled by a ring 

 of such fringing vegetation, the moisture in the soil bordering the 

 outcrops of rock being supplied from the drainage off the latter. 

 A peculiarity of the country occupied by the savannah forests is 

 that during the rainy season extensive areas are under water for 



