SummaryThe blood pressures of young Black and White American schoolchildren were measured and compared with those of Nigerian children of similar ages. Both diastolic and systolic pressures were consistently higher in the Nigerian children than in the Americans, both Black and White. The White children had the lowest pressures at each age. The mean weights and heights at each age were not significantly different in the three groups. Although the blood pressure of African children was higher than that of Black Americans, mean adult pressures are known to be similar in both groups. This suggests that the difference in childhood pressures must be due more to environmental factors than to genetic ones.Abadina School, University of Ibadan campus, Nigeria, was also studied. They were aged 6-14 years.In children aged under 12 blood pressure was measured with a standard mercury manometer using a cuff 9 cm wide. In children aged 12 years and over an adult cuff (13 x 25 cm) was used. The recordings were made in each classroom with the children standing in a queue with an arm extended on a table. The diastolic pressure was taken as that at which muffling of sounds occurred (phase IV) and readings were recorded as the nearest 5 nun gradation below the observed figure. In all cases arterial pressures were measured between 0900 and 1600. Heights, weights, and arm circumference were also recorded.

Inflorescence and floral morphological characters in twelve species of Cyperus -a genus known to have C 3 and C 4 photosynthetic species -were investigated in order to check their usefulness in delimiting species into photosynthetic groups. Plant species were collected from different locations within Southwestern Nigeria. Qualitative characters were noted and recorded while some quantitative characters were measured with metric ruler to the nearest centimeter and others were counted. The results revealed that compound umbellate inflorescence, digitately arranged spikelets and short spikelets not over 1cm long are characters that separate C. difformis and C. haspan which are C 3 species, while the rest with simple umbellate inflorescence, spicate spikelets and spikelet length over 1cm are C 4 species. Cyperus dilatatus, a species without a previous record of photosynthetic grouping, is hereby grouped as a C 4 species since it shared characters with the rest C 4 species. From this study, a combination of characters was identified, which can possibly be used along with known data from other sources in the grouping of Cyperus species as either C 3 or C 4 species. Data on C. dilatatus also showed that it possibly belong to C 4 species. This is probably the first known report on photosynthetic grouping of this species.

West African dwarf (WAD) goats were immunized with chicken red blood cells and their antibody response assessed by direct haemagglutination. Kids of about 1 month old developed antibody titres (log2 5.63 +/- 0.69) which were significantly lower (P less than 0.001) than those of adults (log2 7.78 +/- 1.12) and 3 month old kids (log2 7.40 +/- 0.89). The antibody titres of the latter did not differ significantly from those of adults. It is suggested that this early immune maturity may play a role in the hardiness of WAD goats and in their relative resistance to helminth and protozoan infection as compared with local sheep.

Leaf anatomical characters of twelve species from the genus Cyperus, a genus known to contain species with both C3 and C4 plants, have been investigated. We investigated and established the usefulness of all‐inclusive functional leaf anatomical characters for identifying the photosynthetic pathways of these species. The species investigated were C. articulatus L., C. compressus L., C. difformis L., C. dilatatus Schum. & Thonn., C. distans L., C. esculentus L., C. haspan L., C. imbricatus Retz., C. iria L., C. rotundus L., C. sphacelatus Rottb. and C. tenuiculmis (Boeck.) Hooper, collected from locations in southwestern Nigeria. Standard anatomical procedures for examining epidermal and cross sections of leaves were employed. Our data suggested that a combination of characters, such as the occurrence of Kranz tissue, maximum cell distant count, maximum lateral cell count, interveinal distance, and to some extent leaf and mesophyll thickness, provide a reliable basis for the assessment of the photosynthetic pathways of the investigated species as compared to the isolated characters used previously. The study indicate that C. difformis and C. haspan are C3 species while the rest follow the C4 photosynthetic pathway. A salient feature of this study is the identification of C. dilatatus as belonging to the C4 group.

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