ACKNOWLEDGEMENT [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—For several months
of the year, in our compound in Nigeria, we have the inspiring sight of some half-dozen scarlet flamboyant trees spreading wide their stately branches, and transmuting the burning sun of Africa into a glory of glowing colour and cool shadow. They must be about twenty- five years old, and I think with gratitude of the unknown Commissioner who cleared this space in the virgin forest, and planted these lovely trees with painstaking care, even though he knew full well that he would not be there to enjoy their mature beauty.
Nor is his deed less in that he is only one of many such benefactors who have beautified " stations " and even lonely " rest houses " with flowering trees—mauve and yellow cassias, pale pink bauhinia, blue jacaranda and red flamboyant, as well as lime, lemon, orange and guava trees which supply us with delicious fruit to cheer the inner man jaded from a surfeit of stringy chicken and tasteless yarn.
' Knowing that many pioneers of West Africa are readers of the Spectator, I venture to send this message of grateful appreciation so that they may know that we who enjoy the results of their energy and forethought are not unmindful of
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