BOTANICAL REPORT OF LIBERIA 020 
Aside from the pathological point of view, the rubber plantation is extremely 
interesting to the mycologist because of the fungal forms growing not only on 
the woody detritus, but also on the ground. Thus the writer found here several 
species, among which there was an orange, unbranched Clavaria, a Thelephora 
apparently related to 7’. terrestris, and a species of Geoglossum. The latter genus, 
so far as can be determined from the literature has not been reported previously 
from tropical Africa, although it is represented in North America, Brazil, Europe, 
India, Java, Australia, and Japan. 
THE CoASTAL REGION 
Leaving Monrovia and travelling in an easterly direction, we pass, after about 
two miles, from the red lateritic soil that forms the backbone of the peninsula. 
Here one encounters what appear to be old plantations of the oil palm (laeis 
guineensis). For the most part the trees appear to be rather old and past their 
prime, numbers were either dead or dying. Beyond the main plantations, the 
palms became more scattered and the country then becomes fairly level, open 
and grass-covered, with here and there clusters of low trees. The grass, Adenan- 
thus sp., was most in evidence because of its height. The clusters of trees ap- 
peared to be predominantly Parinarium macrophyllum, a member of the Rosaceae, 
which produces an edible fruit called variously by the natives, ‘‘peaches”’ or 
‘““‘monkey plums.’ Single bushes of Lonchocarpus macrostachyus, six to eight 
feet high and producing long, twisting, winding branches are occasionally dis- 
tributed in the grassy openings. Among the low bushes and climbing therein is 
an occasional lily, Gloriosa virescens, adapted to its mode of living by the taper- 
ing of the ends of the leaves to produce twining tendrils. The flowers, scarlet red, 
while brilliant and conspicuous in a garden, are not at all so in the native habitat, 
where the color merges with the green of the surrounding foliage. Of the com- 
moner roadside plants, Sida carpinifolia appears to be most abundant, with 
Crotalaria falcata equally prominent though much less numerous. 
Here and there, lateritic outcrops are encountered and immediately, in 
contrast to those seen on the sandy plains, the trees become tall, dense, and 
typical of one’s expectation of a tropical rain forest. From some of the trees, 
a considerable distance above ground, one sees the slender, pendent vines of 
a Vanilla orchid which apparently is not profuse in the production of flowers, 
and even less so in the production of seed pods. The flowers are not conspic- 
uous from the distance since their color is greenish yellow except for the sepals 
that are veined with purple. 
At the base of the hills formed by the lateritic outcrop, the sand of the 
savannah is kept moist by seepage and in such places sedges and grasses 
abound, among which are also the inconspicuous plants of the club-moss, Lyco- 
podium bulbiferum. Taller and more conspicuous is Honckenya ficifolia, its 
showy magenta flowers, or its bristly red fruit-capsule standing out in weleome 
relief against the surrounding yellow-green of the various grasses. In the 
swampy depressions also formed between the hills, Mesanthemum radicans, 
a relative of the deer grass, Hriocaulon, produces clusters of leaves that are one 
