226 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



water, may be highly malarious ; and this is the case 

 also with deltas and old estuaries." 



Apart from the importance of vegetation in its 

 relations and contact with the ground, and the 

 questions of scarcity and consequent dearness of 

 fire-wood in different places along the West Coast, 

 the effect of timber denudation on water supply is 

 making itself felt at Sierra Leone, Accra, and else- 

 where ; as also on the climate generally. 



Again what as to fire-wood, if prohibition was 

 imposed on the cutting of the Mangrove so univer- 

 sally resorted to for so necessary an article ; it is a 

 moot question whether in a sanitary sense its cutting 

 and clearance should be allowed. 



In Lagos during 1879 I was successful in rearing 

 some specimens of Eucalyptus the seeds of which 

 had been kindly supplied by the Director of the Royal 

 Gardens, Kew. I endeavoured in 1881 to have 

 ascertained the names of the Eucalypts I had 

 reared. This could not then be done with any 

 certainty, as in the case of juvenile plants the foliage 

 is markedly different from that assumed by the 

 adult plants. Steps should, however, be taken in 

 this direction. Geologically it may be said that the 

 Island of St. Mary, Gambia, resembles the Island of 

 Lagos. It occurred to me as highly desirable to 

 make an attempt to introduce also there so orna- 

 mental, useful, and beneficial (in a health sense) trees 

 as are the Eucalypts. 



