i84 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



Conferences held in the Imperial Court of the 

 Indian Section of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition 

 (1886), and endeavour here to apply to West Africa the 

 experience gained therefrom, in the hope of bringing 

 about there such developments as have been deemed 

 worthy of attention in India and elsewhere. 



In the Conferences referred to, special notice 

 (extracts follow, lettered -(4, B, C, D) was directed to the 

 fibres suitable for textile purposes of the following : — 



A. Sida rhombifolia. (Found from Senegambia to 

 the Congo. " A very variable plant, widely diffused 

 throughout the Tropics." — Oliver's ' Tropical Africa.') 



B. Hibiscus cannabinus. ( " Cultivated for the sake 

 of its fibre in most parts of Africa." — Oliver.) 



B. Hibiscus esadentus. (Okra — commonly grown in 

 West Africa as an article of food ; might be developed 

 to any extent.) 



C. Bauhinia Vahlii. (According to Oliver, the 

 Bauhinia is a large Tropical genus ; and of the B. 

 articidata: "the bark yields a tough fibre.") 



D. Eriodendron anfractuosum. (Found from Sene- 

 gambia to the Congo : the silk cotton tree : large 

 imports into Holland, Belgium, Germany, from the 

 Dutch Indies, proceed in this article, called kapok, for 

 filling beds, mattresses, upholstery generally — uses 

 which have prevailed from time immemorial among 

 the natives of West Afiica.) 



D. Cochlospennum Gossypium. (A genus found 

 generally along West Africa.) 



