NIGERIA 201 
epiphytic Ansellias and a few woody climbers but no typical lianes, 
and an undergrowth composed of Leguminous and Composite herbs 
and undershrubs with some grasses. This type of forest probably 
at one time covered a much wider area and had a greater extension 
northward than at present. As mentioned above, a large proportion 
of its constituents may again be found in the Duru forest between 
Sokoto and Kano, while within the memory of officials of the present 
administration areas of woodland previously visible from Sokoto have 
been denuded for firewood. It tends progressively to give place to 
the following more open variety of savannah. 
2. Bush Savannah. 
This is probably the form of ‘“ bush ”’ with which travelling officials, 
hunters, and others are most familiar in every province, and is, when 
not overloaded with tall grass, deserving of the term “‘ open orchard 
savannah.” It is composed of scattered shrubs and small trees of 
short growth and of a considerable sameness, the whole picture being 
practically filled in with grasses, which may grow to a height of 6 to 
8 feet in the rains, but which are swept off by bush-fires in the dry 
period, leaving bare the intervening spaces, soon to be reoccupied by 
suffrutescent plants with persistent rootstocks, and later by weeds 
and the same grasses as before. This resurrection is not due to seeding, 
which is itself abundant, but mainly to the fact that the majority of 
bush grasses have perennial underground stems, which, once given 
occupation, are difficult to dislodge, and, assisted by the recurrent 
fires, which kill off the seeds and the seedlings of broad-leaved trees, 
have everything in favour of their natural progress to predominance. 
The commoner bush grasses of this habit found here are: 
Andropogon Gayanus, Cymbopogon Ruprechtit, C. diplandrus, C. 
giganteum, C. hirtus, C. rufus, Andropogon tectorum, A. apricus, Rott- 
ballia exaltata, Pennisetum pedicellatum, etc. In clumps, generally 
found in special situations, e.g. near river banks, etc., are Vetwerta 
zizanoides, Saccharum spontaneum, Arundo donaz, etc. It is possible 
that some of these species which now cumber the soil might be put 
to use in supplying the raw material for paper. 
The prevailing shrubs and small trees of this formation are generally 
somewhat as follows: Bauhinia reticulata and B. rufescens, Detartum 
Senegalense, several species of Combretum with the dwarf C. herbaceum ; 
also Afrormosia laxiflora and occasional Acacias, e.g. A. Sieberiana, 
Entada Sudanica, Dichrostachys nutans ; bright flowering species, such 
as Cochlospermum tinctorium ; several shrubby species of Hibiscus 
Cassia Arereh, C. Goratensis and other species, Lonchocarpus laxiflorus, 
Securidaca longipedunculata, Grewia mollis, Feretia canthioides ; the 
Gardenias—G. ternifolia, G. erubescens, etc.; Sterospermum Kun- 
thianum, Sarcocephalus Russegeri, Parinarium curatellefolium, Psoro- 
