312 
Opportunity she offering a salary of £150, and with reference to 
the engagement of a curator, I beg to request that your lordship 
may be pleased to direct that a serm be selected fron etd ' for the 
Lii with one and hammock allowance at 2s. d. per 
; Pe As machinery for the purpose of nne the coffee berry 
for the market will be required as soon as the Botanic station is 
established, it is very desirable that ‘he man E be selected should 
obtain all the necessary information regarding it, from what 
firms it can best be procured and the kind best adapted for this 
colony. 
5. Your lordship will observe that the estimates for 1895, which 
I propose to forward for your cae €— do not I ntly 
provide for the verseiim of curator and overseer at the increased 
over expenditure amounts to £1,101 there is ample margin for 
the small additional sum required to ep the increased salaries. 
ave, &c. 
(Signed) T. CARDEW, 
: Administrator. 
a Are Honourable, ~ 
Marquess of Ripon, K.G., &c. 
Mr. F. E. Willey, a member of the staff of the Royal Gardens, 
o had previously acted temporarily as curator of the Botanic 
on at the Gold Coast, was appointed curator of the new 
tation. He embarked for Sierra Leone in November, 1895. 
The following letter gives an interesting account of his first 
impressions of botanical work in the colony. 
CURATOR, BOTANIC STATION, SIERRA LEONE, TO ROYAL 
GARDENS, KEW. 
Botanical Station, Freetown, 
i 4th April, 1896. 
SIR 
I HAVE the honour to forward by this mail steamer, a box 
containing seeds of Pentadesma butyracea, the butter and tallow 
tree of Sierra Leone,” tubers of Amorphophallus leonensis, bulbs 
of two species of Crinum (one C. yuccæflorum) and one Hymeno- 
callis; also two samples of coffee in parchment, viz., Coffea 
liberica, and C. stenophytia, ina two fibres which I extracted, 
e from Sansevieria guineensis, s the other from Hibiscus sp. ; 
all “of which I hope will arrive in good condition 
Iam going to procure a quantit : of seeds of the “ butter tree," 
for an oa Pere as to their oil value, as suggested in your letter 
of January 13th last, to the Colonial Office 
The samples of coffee, and fibre which I have forwarded, I 
* An account of this interesting tree and its produce will Le found on pp. 320-325. 
