BOTANICAL REPORT OF LIBERIA 541 
is little primary forest except for short stretches that are confined to the swamps. 
The remaining area is either low secondary growth or else is given over to 
the cultivation of rice. In some of the rice fields, especially the more recent 
ones, there are a few oil palms of which the natives eat the fruits after they 
have been cracked between two stones. The secondary forest differs little from 
that already seen, although a bushy member of the Connaraceae is in full bloom. 
In the rather dry sandy soil at the edge of thickets, there is a very interesting 
little melastomaceous plant, Dissotis rotundifolia. The plant is prostrate and 
roots at the nodes from which are produced roots that in the earlier stages of 
development are surrounded by thick, hyaline, mucilaginous sheaths. This 
sheath is about as thick as half the diameter of the rootlet and apparently 
provides a hygroscopic layer that protects the enclosed structure from con- 
ditions of drought that are so easily brought about in such a habitat. 
GBANGA 
The forest conditions around Suahkoko persist the entire distance to Gbanga, 
a military post and the seat of government of this region. The fields of rice 
appear to be commensurate with the importance of the town since hundreds of 
acres of land are given over to that crop. Apparently an equally great area 
has been relinquished from cultivation and is now covered with secondary growth. 
Around Gbanga the country is rolling, the low hills rounded or slightly 
flattened, and as just stated covered either with rice fields or low secondary 
bush. The Yaw River, that forms the southern boundary of the town is fed 
by many minor tributaries that drain the swampy areas between the hills. 
Outside of the town limits, there is still a narrow fringe of the original forest 
along the river and its tributaries. Here Macrolobium macrophyllum is a tree 
fifty or more feet high as is also Calpocalyx brevibracteatus; Bussea occidentalis, 
a member of the Leguminoseae as are the two preceding species, grows to a 
height of eighty feet, and when in full bloom is covered by a mass of rich yel- 
low flowers that make the tree stand out among all the rest. The erect red- 
dish-brown pods that follow contain seeds that are eaten by the natives. Other 
and taller members of the same family are also present but unfortunately 
not in flower. Of the lower trees, not exceeding twenty feet in height are Stre- 
phonema apolloniensis, Leptaulus daphnoides, Glyphaea laterifolia, a bush 
about ten feet high, branching at the base, and bearing thin tapering okra- 
shaped fruits, and Caloncoba echinata a tree fifteen feet with white caulicolous 
flowers that are subsequently replaced by spiny ovoid fruits. Among these 
trees and producing conspicuous lianas are Acacia pennata and Milletia melano- 
calyx with its panicles of white flowers. Further back from the river, Dicha- 
petalum scabrum, producing its small creamy-white flowers in the racemes at 
the axils of the leaves, also is a liana or better still, a woody vine. In the brooks 
flowing through the open secondary growth, the alga Batrachospermum is 
again abundant, while less abundant and apparently more restricted in its 
occurrence is Nitella of the green algae, in company with which is a plant that 
strongly resembles species of Najas. Among the numerous species of sedges 
