FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 423 



chief export is from the Gold Coast, and principally 

 from the stations of Cape Coast Castle and Accra. 

 The exports average nearly 2,000 cwt. annually, 

 nearly half coming to Great Britain. — ' Medicinal 

 Plants,' Bentley and Trimen, vol. iv., No. 268. 

 Distribution : Upper Guinea. 



Amomum citratum, Per. — The seeds of this species 

 are angular, oblong, of a shining brownish yellow 

 colour, are larger than the Malabar cardamoms, and 

 have a large concave depression at one extremity ; 

 they have a warm aromatic flavour, and when crushed 

 give off an odour somewhat analogous to that of 

 lemon-grass oil {Andropogon). In Gabon the natives 

 use them as an excitant and vermifuge. — 'Pharma- 

 ceutical Journal,' vol. ix., 1850, p. 313 ; 'Catalogue 

 des Produits des Colonies Frangaises, Exposition 

 Universelle de 1867,' p. 105. 



Distribution : Upper Guinea. 



Large or Grape-seeded Amomum {Amomum lati- 

 foliuin, Afz.). — This species commonly grows on the 

 outskirts of thickets and amid the long grass on the 

 elevated slopes in the vicinity of Kongo-town and 

 Kissy, Sierra Leone, and consequently has obtained 

 the title of the " grass-field Obro " among the Ako 

 colonists. It is indigenous to the Foulah, Soosu and 

 Timneh countries, and is scattered throughout the 

 intermediate regions northward as far as the River 

 Gambia, where it abundantly flourishes at Koto and 



