BOTANICAL REPORT OF LIBERIA D009 
established. The terrain continues to be rolling and the elevation seldom ex- 
ceeds eight hundred feet until Bonuta, which is situated on a flat hilltop at 
nine hundred feet elevation. 
At Bonuta where we spend two days, Waltheria lanceolata, Cassia occi- 
dentalis, Indigofera macrophylla, all herbs; Hippocratea Thomasii and Dalbergia 
savatilis, vines; and Leptaulus daphnoides a tree fifty to sixty feet high, and 
Macaranga Barteri, fifteen to twenty feet high, were collected. 
As usual, rice is planted outside of the town. Within the limits of the town 
in small gardens, Colocasia sp., cassava, afew pineapples and peanuts, are grown. 
Here, as is also true of Bakratown, much more appears to be made of the oil 
palm. The oil is used for cooking, and also to smear over the wounds made 
during the process of scarification. 
Between Bonuta and Paiata, the land appears to be almost level and the 
soil rather sandy. About four-fifths of the distance is in fine forests, the 
remainder either in second growth or rice fields. The forest appears to be 
much the same as that already traversed, although one or two new trees and 
several vines are seen. About half way to Paiata, the screw pine, Pandanus sp. 
not seen since the brackish waters near Duport, grows in a fresh-water swamp. 
The species is not as large nor is it in as great numbers as the one near the 
coast, so that there are grounds for speculations as to the identity of the species 
and as to the manner in which it reached that locality. 
Paiata, seven hundred and forty feet above sea level and about seventy- 
five feet above the St. Paul River, is on a flattened ridge that extends some 
distance back from the river. Along the edge of the river there is a fringe of 
bushes among which are such species as Ormocarpum guineensis and Hymeno- 
cardia africana, the latter the more numerous of the two. Behind the lower 
fringe are tall trees, the majority of them leguminous, and some of them sending 
their stout branches out over the water. On such branches grow two species 
of orchids, one related to Bulbophyllum imbricatum, the other to B. rupinicola. 
Here also grows one of the few epiphytic and herbaceous members of the 
Melastomaceae, Amphiblemma cymosum, its characteristically veined leaves 
reddish below, but with a beautiful metallic blue sheen above. Xylopia Val- 
lotii also occurs along the river edge where it is a spreading tree about forty 
feet high. This species also occurs in the original forests away from the river. 
It is known by the Kpwesi tribe as ‘‘sibi,’’ and the fruits are eaten. Under 
the taller trees, Manniophyton africanum, a common bush of the secondary 
growth around Gbanga, grows into a straggling tree twenty-five or thirty feet 
tall. A low, semi-ligneous species of Dracaena, and also a small climbing rela- 
tive of the rattan palm is occasionally seen on the flat bushy banks of the river. 
In moist openings near the river, an unusual species of Scleria was discovered. 
It grows to a height of six feet and differs from any species of the genus that 
have been seen previously, by its tuberculate fruit, its prominent ligule, and 
the characteristic constriction of the leaf blade near the base. Of the vines 
that drape the taller trees along the river’s edge, two have been identified as 
Lingelsheimia gilgiana and Chlamydocarya capitata. The most beautiful of the 
