INTRODUCTION. 



Until now only two reports have been published on the Gold Coast 

 Forests. The first one the result of Mr. H. N. Thompson's tour in 

 1908, with his recommendations as to necessary forest legislation. 

 This was published as a Colonial Ofhce Miscellaneous Report and is 

 now out of print. Secondly, Mr. N. C. McLeod's " Statement for the 

 British Empire Forestry Conference," in 1920, which dealt with a 

 brief review of the forest under certain specified headings. Only 150 

 copies of this report were printed, and these were circulated outside 

 this country. 



It may safely be said, therefore, that the majority of the people 

 of this country, as well as those outside, who are interested in it from 

 commercial or other reasons, have at the most only a vague idea of 

 the forests of the country, their economic importance, and the part 

 they play in the protection of the country generally. The present 

 work, on which the writer has been engaged for some years, is the first 

 attempt at a complete presentation of the present-day position of the 

 forests with their problems and all available information bearing on 

 them. Many of the facts have been understood for a long time, but 

 this is the first endeavour to marshal these facts together, and, after 

 an appreciative study of them, draw the conclusions to which the 

 writer has come, and for which he is solely responsible. There is a 

 considerable amount of original work now published for the first time, 

 foremost among which is the intimate relation of the forests to the 

 meteorological observations and physiography of the country, and 

 the maps, graphs, and tables bearing on these. The Synopsis of 

 Natural Orders and lists of Economic Plants are abstracted from the 

 " List of Trees, Shrubs and Climbers," and " List of Herbaceous Plants 

 and Undershrubs," published by the writer in 1912 and 1914 

 respectively. 



This work had originally been intended as a handy reference book 

 for Forest Officers appointed to the Colony, and African students who 

 take up forestry locally, and it has, to a large extent, retained its original 

 form to suit this purpose. Chapters VII and X, in particular, being 

 included. At the same time, however, its scope has been extended 



