NIGERIA 203 
scrambling undershrubs added thereto, while the edge of such a meadow 
or “fadama ” is in some cases fringed with deciduous high woods, in 
which occasionally timbers like Khaya Senegalensis and Paradaniellia 
Olivert may appear along with the vegetation characteristic of Type 1. 
4. Evergreen Fringing Belts. 
Along the water-courses which intersect the savannah lands will 
be found dark evergreen strips of foliage, which, when extending 
beyond the stream-banks and forming a fairly dense canopy, whatever 
the nature of the underwood, are generally implied in the Hausa word 
“kurumi.” The streams may not be always truly perennial, but the 
verdure remains because the moisture in the soil persists long enough 
to maintain the non-deciduous type, although bush-fires may reach 
their very margins. Where a perennial stream of any magnitude 
occurs, species will be found whose distribution in the Soudan Zone 
is confined to such localities, but which are widely represented in the 
South. 
Instead of enumerating the constituents of these strips of fringing 
forest, we may briefly refer to the vegetation of the River Benué, which 
has been already indicated as in some degree marking the boundary 
between the semi-evergreen or mixed deciduous forests and the drier 
tree savannah and open bush lands. The evergreen galleries along 
the streams or fringing the swampy glades may be taken as on the 
whole botanically similar to the bank foliage of the Benué and its 
backwaters, creeks and tributaries. One feature of this type is the 
abundance of woody climbers, often concealing the foliage of their 
supports, and conspicuous to the eye in the flowering season are the 
Combretacew, which are here scrambling and climbing shrubs instead 
of erect trees, e.g. the flame-flowered Combretum racemosum, C. con- 
strictum, etc., Quisqualis Indica and others ; also two or three species 
of Landolphia with other rubber vines, and of Mussenda, scarlet- 
fruited Connaracee, Uncaria Africana, climbing by its old flower-stalks 
becoming woody hooks, and Alchornea cordata, the most typical liane 
of these formations. Other twiners are the showy moon-convolvulus, 
Calonyction speciosum (Ipomea bona-nox), the Cowhage, Mucuna 
pruriensis, Dioclea reflexa, Entada scandens and numerous Ampelidee. 
These tend to form a dense and sometimes impenetrable tangle, but 
where trees of timber size occur the undergrowth is more scanty and 
a variety of forest weeds appear, in which the Scitaminee may be 
prominent. 
The Benué region is rich in trees, of which the following species 
may be mentioned : Goron ruwa, Irvingia Smithii, and Gedar kurumi, 
Pterocarpus esculentus, Trichilia retusa, the large timber tree called 
Kiriyar kurumi (undetermined), Erythrophlocum Guineense, Millettia 
sp., Sanagana and M. sericeus, Cynometra Vogelit, Anthocleista 
