The opening of Preface
In the Appendix of his Report on the Forests of the Sudan, published in 1901, Mr. C. E. Muriel, of the Imperial Indian Forest Service, gave a list of the more common trees and shrubs and of a few other plants, together with short descriptions and statements on their uses and economic value, also their Arabic and, where possible, the Hameg names.
At the end of that year the Sudan Government gave me the appointment of Director of Woods and Forests. At that time only few of the volumes of the Flora of Tropical Africa had appeared and the earliest ones were already antiquated. During the numerous journeys taken by me in various parts of the Sudan, my wife and I were able to collect a large number of plants, making at the same time notes of their names in various languages of the Sudan, and their economic and other uses. I also received considerable help, as regards Golo names, from the late Mr. S. Skirmunt, then Deputy Inspector of Forests in the Bahr el Ghazal Province.