CHAPTER XIV. Bibliography of West African Forests

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WEST AFRICAN FORESTS

1. HISTORICAL.

One of the first books was Forestry in West Africa, by Sir Alfred Maloney, a former Governor of Lagos, which was published in 1887. This is a most interesting and readable book, and, for the time it was written, gives a very good account of many of the forest trees. It is also much to Sir A. Maloney’s credit that teak, Tectona grandis, was introduced into Nigeria at that time.

In The Journal of an Expedition to Explore the Course and Termination of the Niger, by Richard and John Lander, only very vague descriptions of the forests are given, and it is therefore not of much value from the Forestry point of view, though it is a most entertaining description of the people and their doings at that time.

2. BOTANICAL.

From 1868 onwards, Flora of Tropical Africa appeared; so far eight volumes have been published. This work was planned by the late Sir William J. Hooker and edited first of all by Daniel Oliver, and subsequently by Sir W. T. Thistleton-Dyer, K.C.M.G., C.I.E., and now by Lieut.-Colonel D. Prain, the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It is, of course, very scientific, accurate and botanical, but has very dry descriptions of many of the African trees and plants and no illustrations are contained in these octavo volumes. What also makes it harder to use this Flora is the fact that since 1868 many new plants have been named, and some of the names of the old plants have been altered. A most useful chapter on Elementary Botany is contained at the beginning of Vol. I. This is to some extent also a glossary of botanical terms, but of course it cannot take the place of A Glossary of Botanic Terms, by D. G. Jackson, 1905.

In many ways a much more useful book to the forester is Engler’s Monographien der Pflanzenfamilien, of which eight volumes have appeared:

I. Moraceæ, excluding Ficus.

II. Melastomaceaæ.

III. Combretaceæ Combretum.

IV. Combretaceæ, excluding Combretum.

V. Sterculiaceæ.

VI. Anonaceæ.

VII. Strophanthus.

VIII. Sapotaceæ.

The full-page black-and-white drawings of the various plants are very valuable, and as they are all done on the same system, comparison both with the plants and with other books is not very difficult. The expense of these volumes is not excessive, considering the very large number of illustrations and the authority of the text. It is a pity that this series has for the time being come to an end.

In Engler’s Pflanzenfamilien, of course, a very complete account of all plants is given, and the additions to it made almost monthly make it quite possible to find out the latest-named additions to the plant- world. The only disadvantage to these volumes is their number, size, and lack of illustrations.

To face p. 496.

In a similar, though in a less complete way The Kew Bulletin gives the latest list of plants identified at Kew, amongst which are usually some from Nigeria, and occasionally special bulletins appear on the plants from Nigeria—as, for instance, Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information, Additional Series No. 9; The Useful Plants of Nigeria, Part I, 1908,