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

What it is

The final part of a plant-by-plant survey of what grows in Nigeria and West Africa and what it is used for. It covers the rest of the flowering plants, including the pepper, ginger and grass families, with local names, collecting places, uses, preparation and trade.

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, Akan 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

• Amomum Granum-Paradisi, Linn. (Part IV, pp. 661–662)
• Chenopodium ambrosioides, Linn. (Part IV, pp. 544–545)
• Piper guineense, Schum. & Thonn. [P. Clusii, C.DC.] (Part IV, pp. 554–555)
• Zingiber officinale, Rosc.: names, uses and trade (Part IV, p. 665)