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Chapter III. 

 THE FORESTS OF THE GOLD COAST. 



The Guinea Zone. 



(a) The Evergreen Forest. 

 This subdivision from which the greater part of the forest vegetation 

 of West Africa is derived is at the present day restricted to an area of 

 some 18,000 square miles in the Gold Coast and Ashanti. It is, how- 

 ever, still lingering on as the " fringing forests " of the other sub- 

 divisions, that is, the strips of closely wooded country along the water- 

 courses. 



x\s a rule the soil has no great depth except when it has accumulated 

 in valleys and depressions, and from these places it is constantly being 

 removed seawards, and, at the same time, more is being brought down 

 from the open and unprotected country to the north. The soil pre- 

 sents every variation from a coarse sand to a characteristic red clay, 

 and is derived from the rock bed which is generally capped by laterite. 



The country is well supplied with water owing to the extensive 

 area to the north which rapidly drains into it. 



The Evergreen Forest extends over the river system of the south- 

 west of the Colony, an area gradually rising from the coast to the 

 Ashanti plateau and Kwahu range, and intersected by the valleys of 

 the main streams at right angles to the coast line and by those of 

 their tributaries parallel to the coast. Inland and northwards these 

 undulations become more gentle, but eastwards they resolve into 

 two lines of hills running from north-east to south-west, one running 

 from central Ashanti to the Tarquah-Prestea area, and one from the 

 Kwahu District through Akim. 



It is difficult at present in a forest comprising so many arboreal 

 species to point to any individuals especially characteristic but Lophira 

 procera, Heritiera utilis, Pentadesma butyracea, and Cynometra sp. 

 (Ananta) have so far been noted as being peculiar to this type of forest. 

 In the valleys and depressions, except in the perennial marshes, these 

 trees thrive and regenerate abundantly ; on the hill tops where it is 

 drier and the soil scanty they are not so abundant, and outside the 

 Evergreen Forest they are rarely recorded. 



The forest in general consists of trees forming a closed canopy 

 from 20 to 150 feet or more in height, and interlaced by innumerable 

 woody lianes. Below, where the light is sufficient to permit it, is a 

 mass of shrubs from a few inches to several feet high, bound together 

 by the lesser woody lianes and herbaceous climbers and interspersed 



2A 



