The Useful Plants of Nigeria, Part III (Kew Bulletin, Additional Series IX)

What it is

A plant-by-plant survey of what grows in Nigeria and West Africa and what it is used for: food, medicine, timber, oil and trade. Each article gives the plant's local names, where it was collected, how it is used and prepared, and trade figures. Part III covers the flowering families from the coffee family (Rubiaceae) to the mint family (Labiatae).

Whose knowledge it records

Compiled at Kew by a British colonial botanist from herbarium labels and the reports of colonial officers and collectors. The uses themselves are Yoruba, Hausa, Efik, Edo, Igbo and other West African knowledge, which the book records by place and local name but rarely credits to the person who shared it.

Passages transcribed

• Butyrospermum Parkii, Kotschy (the shea tree): names, uses and preparation (Part III, pp. 410–411)
• Corynanthe, Welw. (the note on Corynanthe Yohimbe) (Part III, p. 352)
• Kigelia africana, Benth.; Fl. Trop. Afr. IV. Sect. 2, p. 536. (Part III, p. 511)
• Morinda lucida, Benth. in Hook. Niger Flora, p. 406. (Part III, pp. 374–375)
• Ocimum viride, Willd. (Part III, pp. 528–529)
• Picralima Klaineana, Pierre; Fl. Trop. Afr. IV. Sect. 1, p. 96. (Part III, p. 439)
• Rauwolfia vomitoria, Afzel.; Fl. Trop. Afr. IV. Sect. 1, p. 115. (Part III, pp. 440–441)
• Sesamum indicum, Linn. (Part III, pp. 511–512)
• Vernonia amygdalina, Delile (Part III, p. 379)