FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 259 



on — and it is to be hoped that a decision will prove to 

 be of early date — from the bitter experience of the 

 past ; from the sad lessons of our other Colonies, which 

 have carried their eggs in one basket, and have 

 as a consequence glutted the markets with their one 

 commodity at great financial losses ; and from the 

 wants of the present, as regards the permanent 

 establishment of a Botanic Garden or some allied 

 institution — call it what you will — it may be deemed 

 to be convenient to find embodied in this Book the 

 following " Suggestions (with certain modifications 

 capable of easy adaptation in West Africa) for the 

 information of Colonial Governments about to appoint 

 Superintendents of Botanic Gardens, and for the 

 guidance of the Superintendents themselves," a copy 

 of which has been placed at my disposal through the 

 thoughtfulness and courtesy of W. Thistleton Dyer, 

 Esq., C.M.G., the Director of Kew Gardens, to whom 

 I am also indebted for the Kew standing instructions 

 for collecting plants and seeds reproduced at Ap- 

 pendix I., which will be found of much interest and 

 advantage to collectors in that part of the world with 

 which this Work has to do : — 



I. The Superintendent's time should be occupied 

 by the duties of the gardens in the interests of the 

 Colony and mother country. These duties include 

 not merely the keep and cultivation of the plants, 

 but correspondence ^nth other gardens in the Colony 

 and elsewhere, and activity in procuring by means of 



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