604 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [March i, 1889. 
Captain Moloney, O.M.G., the present Governor of 
the Colony of Lagos, has given considerable attention 
to West African products. He has been in corres- 
pondence with Kew for many years, and contributed 
numerous specimens to the museums, as well as dried 
plants for purposes of determination. Recently, 
Captain Moloney has published a work on the forest 
products and economic plants of West Africa, which 
is a valuable summary of information relating to the 
flora of tropical Africa.* 
The prinoipal West African Colonies are the Gambia, 
Sierra Leone, Gold Coast, and Lagos. The extent of 
these Colonies may be estimated from the fact that 
the coast line of the Gold Coast Colony alone is 350 
miles, and that the total area of the British Pro- 
tectorate is from 24,000 to 30,000 square miles. The 
staple products of this Colony are palm oil and palm 
kernels, but among other exports are copra (from 
the coconut palm), guinea grains, gum copal, cam- 
wood, and beniseed. If once the natives inhabiting 
magnificent lands in this Colony were taught to cul- 
tivate economic plants in a systematic manner for 
purposes of export, the material wealth of the Gold 
Coast might be enormously increased. 
Sierra Leone is a settlement with a coast line of 
about 180 miles, and an area of about 3,000 square 
miles. Agriculture is generally neglected, and the 
inhabitants are mainly supported by the trade which 
passes through the Colony from the interior. An 
effort has been made to establish a botanical station 
and model farm near Ereetown in connexion with a 
botanical society, of which the Hon. S. Lewis is 
secretary. The finances of the Colony appear not to 
justify direct action being taken by the Government, 
but it is evident that, without official support, the 
aid of a skilled gardener, and regular supplies of 
seeds and plants, the results attained will not have 
an appreciable effect upon the welfare of the settle- 
ment. 
The Gambia is a comparatively small settlement, 
the total area being about 69 square miles. The 
chief exports are ground-nuts, rice, maize, palm kernels, 
and india-rubber. 
The Colony and Protectorate of Lagos contains an 
area of about 1,071 square miles, and an estimated 
population of 100,000. It was separated from the Gold 
Coast Government in 1886, and erected into a sepa- 
rate Colony with Captain Moloney as the first 
Governor. 
Lagos has unrivalled water communication with the 
interior, and a very extensive trade has therefore 
grown up, amounting to nearly a million and a quarter 
sterling annually. The exports are palm oil and 
kernels, gum copal, cotton and guinea grains. This 
Colony possessing excellent soil on the mainland, and 
good communication with the interior, offers every 
inducement to the extension of native cultures. 
The first botanical station on the West Coast of 
Africa could not be better placed than at Lagos nor 
entrusted to more sympathetic hands than those of 
Captain Moloney. On the occasion of the latter's 
visit to this country last year, he prepared a memo- 
randum on the subject for the approval of the Secre- 
tary of State. This memorandum was based 
on that already adopted for the West Indian Colonies, 
but modified to suit the special ciroumstanoes of West 
Africa. 
[Then follows the Memorandum,] 
At the request of the Secretary of State, the 
solection of a suitable man to take charge of the 
botanical station at Lagos was entrusted to Kew. 
The difficulty as regards the climate of West Africa 
and its unsuitability for laborious servioe on the 
part of a European gardener was sloved by obtain- 
ing a Creole gardener trained by the botanical depart- 
ment of Jamaica. Mr. James MacNair, the man 
appointed, bad been in charge of the Hope Nurseries 
at Jamaica f or seven years, and was highly recom- 
* Sketch of the Forestry of West Africa, with 
Particular Reference to its Principal Commercial Pro- 
ducts. Uy A lfred Moloney, C. M. O., of the Govern- 
ment of the Colony of Lagos. (London: Sampson 
Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, 1887). 
mended for his experience and knowledge of economic 
plants and the details of tropical agriculture. On 
his way from Jamaica to West Africa, he spent 
some time at Kew, and took out with him a Wardian 
case of plants and numerous packets of seeds with 
which to start operations at Lagos. In March of this 
year a further supply of seeds comprising 200 packages, 
obtained from the botanical gardens of Calcutta, 
Ceylon, and Jamaica was forwarded from Kew to 
Lagos. 
As indicating the nature of the duties in which 
Mr. MacNair is engaged at Lagos, the following ex- 
tract from a letter received from him on the 12th 
January last, will be read with interest: — 
" I beg to say that a great many of the seeds 
from Jamaica and Kew, which I brought over with 
me, are doing well. I have them potted up in bamboo 
pots. I shall be very glad to get a further supply 
of all kinds of fruit and timber trees of the West 
Indies, such as Mahogany, Cedar, Juniper, &c. I 
am glad to inform you that I have succeeded in 
getting a few seeds of the No. 11 Mango and Black 
Mango, which I took with me from Jamaica to grow, 
and shall be able soon to propagate plants from them 
by grafts. I find that the Guinea Grass is very 
scarce ; there are a few roots scattered about the 
country, but of a coarse kind, like the St. Mary's 
Grass of Jamaica, but not known in the country as 
a fodder for stock. Also the Guinea Corn is a very 
poor kind. I would like much to have some good 
seeds. The plants from Kew, which I have esta- 
blished in their permanent places, are doing well. 
They look quite healthy, especially the Logwood, 
Annatto, Divi-Divi, Theobroma Cacao, &c. I am still 
staying in the town of Lagos, the station-house being 
not yet completed." 
Again, on the 6th March last, Mr. MacNair wrote 
as follows: — 
"I have been engaged during the last two months 
making a road from the entrance to the Superin- 
tendent's house, seven feet in width, and planted 
out with a border of Bahama grass, three feet in 
width, and making up a couple of beds round the 
house for flowering and ornamental plants, which 
will give the place a neat appearance. The nursery 
is well sheltered with large fig trees, and in addition, 
I have put up a shed covered with palm leaves for 
protecting the younger plants. Our fence at present 
is a temporary one, made of palm leaves, but I 
expect soon to have a good fence put up. I have 
recommended a barbed-wire fence. My supply of 
water is no enough for irrigation purposes, and only 
just enough for watering plants. The river water 
cannot be used, as it is too salt, except in the rainy 
seasons, when it is fresh. The Governor has supplied 
me with a large quantity of Liberian coffee seeds, 
which have grown very nicely. I am now potting 
them, and except to get over 15,000 plants, which 
the Governor intends to distribute amongst the prin- 
cipal native men of the country. I have planted 
out a few of all the different fruit trees which I 
have in stock, also a few Liberian coffee and cacao, 
about the place as an experiment. The plants from 
Kew are all in good condition, and doing well. The 
logwood is fully two feet in height, and I am now 
taking cuttings from it. Our quarterly report is not 
ready for this mail, and will not be for a couple 
of weeks I have got a good supply of botanical 
books on hand; also the Kew Bulletin, sent me by 
the Governor, which I am making use of. The 
wish of the Government is to encourage the growth 
of indigenous trees and plants of marketable value, 
so that they may serve as a visible means of in- 
struction to the natives of the country," 
♦ — 
Medicine fob Trees.— Dosing trees with medicine 
is the latest novelty. Sulphur is placed in holes 
bored in the trunks of trees. This is dissolved arjd 
carried by the sap to the foliage in such quantities 
as to render it offensive to insects. — Indian 
Agriculturist. [The statement that the sulphur is 
really carried into the circulation of the tree requires 
proof.— Ed. T. A,] 
