FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 253 



" A first glance at the ' Flora Nigritiana ' will 

 show how very imperfect our acquaintance yet remains, 

 not only with the luxuriant wild vegetation of West 

 Tropical Africa, including the herbs or trees which 

 furnish many of its most valuable products, but even 

 with many of the plants in general cultivation there. 

 This circumstance may in a great measure be ascribed 

 to the want of any of those permanent botanical 

 establishments which have afforded us so much useful 

 information on the vegetation of the East and West 

 Indies, and have been the means of effecting so many 

 valuable exchanges of plants respectively cultivated in 

 the two hemispheres. Tropical Africa has never even 

 had a resident botanist, and all our knowledge on the 

 subject has been derived from travellers who have 

 either perished there before their mission has been 

 completed, or have hastened home to avoid the effects 

 of the deadly climate. Much is therefore now to be 

 done by a collector who will carefully note down 

 any authentic particulars he can learn, and any ob- 

 servations that occur to him, relating to the plants of 

 which he preserves specimens." 



I have alluded to the employment of Missions. Let 

 me once more acknowledge the great debt Africa and 

 her sons and the commercial world of its West Coast 

 owe to the Basel Mission, begun in 1828, and esta- 

 blished since 1842 on the Aquapim Hills and adjoining 

 plains of the Gold Coast. That Mission to my mind 

 went the right way to work as regards the education 



