FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 265 



XIX. 



It occurred to me in the preparation of this Book 

 that it. would be useful and convenient, and serve 

 advantageously its purpose, to have some information, 

 in a condensed and practical form, of the economic 

 plants, in their botanical order, of tropical West 

 Africa ; and, accordingly, with the kind and generous 

 permission of the Kew Authorities, I employed, at 

 my own expense, out of official hours, Mr. Hillier, of 

 the Kew Economic Museum, to help toward such an 

 end by extracting from the various applicable works. 

 Where information was meagre or vague, reference to 

 the specimens in the Museum and Herbarium and to 

 their description offered ready means of supplying 

 much supplementary information; as also to the useful 

 little Catalogue, styled " Official Guide to the Museums 

 of Economic Botany," Royal Gardens, Kew. In my 

 labours generally, and while engaged at the Kew 

 Economic Museum, I received, as do all, courteous 

 attention and much assistance at the hands of its 

 Curator, Mr. Jackson. 



Accordingly, appended will be found a list — so far 

 as it goes — of the " Economic Plants of West Africa," 

 for which I am mainly — indeed I may say altogether 



