288 
As already mentioned small shipments of West African Tee have 
been mem) val time to time, for many years, but no commerce has 
arisen in wing to its unfavourable character as Paene with 
Madagascar "Rafia. The natives all along the coast manufacture cloths, 
mats, baskets, and hammocks from Rafia, and samples are in the Kew 
Museums from the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, and Old 
Calabar. 
Further specimens of Rafia from West Africa were anyon to 
Kew» recently by Mr. Walter Haydon, Curator of the ori 
Sintia, at the Gambia. The plant yielding these has not yet. 
determined. It is evidently a species of Raphia, but different in the 
fruit from any Raphia so far represented at Kew. Mr. Haydon's 
A of Rafia were soft in texture and of good colour, but rather 
short. They were, however, superior to any specimens previously 
Prod from West Africa. The following Report shows also, that 
the ey were hers commercially at a higher price than any former 
specim: 
Messrs. IDE and CHRISTIE TO ROYAL GARDENS, Kew. 
72, Mark Lane, London, E.C., 
Dear Sim, : November 14, 1895. 
Ree ARDING the oe and letter dated 13th from the Royal 
and fine points all are against the sale and would interfere both with 
sale and value. 
As it is we put it about 207. to 25/. per ton, A small shipment of the 
usual West Coast we sold a few days ago at 25 
Yours faithfully, 
(Signed) Ipz and CHRISTIE, 
D. Morris, Esq., C.M.G., D.Sc., 
Royal Gardens, Kew. 
CCCCLXXXVII.—DIAGNOSES AFRICAN, IX. 
The small collection, of which the following are the new species, was 
made by Mr. Alexander Carson in 1894, opposite the south end v 
Lake Tanganyika. The novelties of his previous collections in the sam 
region are described in * Diagnoses Africans," IV. (Kew Bulletin, 
eas ood map of | 
Proceedings of the "s cosa "Gagah Society (vol, xiv., 1892), 
illustrating a paper by Mr. Alfred Sharpe. It belongs to the es 
Central region, as defined in Oliver’s Flora of Tropical Africa, th 
botan: tany of which is still almost i nen unknown. The whole dcllediion 
contains between 40 and 50 species 
l. Boscia Carsoni, Baker iain: „fruticosa, ramosissima, 
gms > pall distincte 4 paced tis oblongis obtusis basi cuneatis coriaceis 
i de viridibus, floribus in racemos Line multifloros termi- 
