ROYAL GARDENS, KEW. 
" as Its EE TaN 
OF 
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION, 
Nos. 136-137. ] APRIL and MAY. (1898. 
DCIIL—BOTANY OF ASHANTI EXPEDITION. 
Military operations seldom afford much opportunity for 
scientific research. The po. o expedition, which left this 
country at the end of 1895, ved, however, an exception. 
Saipeon: Captain H. A. Cum ea "WES had done some usefu 
botanieal work in India, volunteered for service in the hope 
of being able to obtain some collections from the interior. One 
of the medical staff having at the last moment been found 
physically unfit, the late Sir William Mackinnon, the Director- 
General of the Army Medical Department, appointed Surgeon- 
Captain Cummins on the recommendation of Kew. 
He succeeded, brent considerable difficulties, in bringing back 
a collection of some 200 species, which included nine which 
ere new, besides one new genus. The whole has been worked 
up by himself , at Kew, except the mosses which were determined 
by vane Brotherus of Helsingfors. 
An of the collection is given below. Me 
tonem nota W ere drawn up by Surgeon-Captain Cummin 
the physical and botanical characters of the Beauty ioter hg 
hi 
The following information is taken from the notes which I 
made during the expedition. I travelled from Cape Coast Castle 
the coast, I was enabled during that time to llai specimens of 
the flora and obtain information about the country. 
I.—PHYSICAL FEATURES. 
Extending from the coast line towards the interior the land is 
undulating as far as the river Prah (74 miles). The soil appears 
16829—1375—6/98 Wt90 D&S 29 A 
