XXVIII.-THE EBEN TREE OF OLD CALABAR. 
(Pachylobus edulis, G. Don.) 
The Eben tree is cultivated in various parts of Old Calabar for 
the sake of its fruits, the outer portion of which is eaten after 
being boiled or masted. Examples of these fruits weie f t sent 
to Kew with this name by the Rev. Hugh Goldie in January, 1888. 
These were collected in Creektown. The writer's attention was 
directed to them, ten years later, by the Keeper of the Museum at 
Kew, who suggested that on his return to West Africa the writer 
should furnish material adequate to admit of accurate determina- 
tion. At the time this suggestion was made the fruits were 
believed to belong to a tree of the natural order Laurineae. The 
specimens the writer was able to supply were taken from an Eben 
tree in the Botanic Garden at Old Calabar. Thev reached Kew in 
lS'.iS, and showed that the Eben tree is Pachylnhu* edulis, G. Don 
(.Natural Order lhtrseraceae). In September, l'.»05, Mr. McLeod, 
of the Forestry Department, Southern XL'. Ha. sent another speci- 
men collected at Uwet, on the Calabar River. There were no 
fruits with the Uwet specimen. 
The species has been figured in Hooker's Imnes Phniturum, 
t.'2;>i'A)-, (l.S'.>',»), when- its synonymy and distribution are stated 
to be as follows :— 
" Pachylobus edulis, G. Don, Syst, ii., p. 89. 
Ganarium eclule, Hook. f. in Hook. Niger Flora, 285. 
Ganarium eclule, Hook. f. in Hern Cat. Afr. PL, Welw. i., 
Canarhnu M, ,!,«/„. Fieaiho in Hoi. Soc. Geogr. Lisbon, 
Ser.2,p.olLet l'l. C AfY. I'ornm, p. 115. 
Pachylobus S( (] ,hu, VavA. in Kind. \- 1'ranil. Naturl. Pfl., 
Fam. ill., 4, p. 243. 
Ganarium Saphu, Engl. Jahrb., xv., V . [)<X 
" West Tropical Africa- 
Island of St. Thomas ; G. Don. 
Old Calabar ; Thomson. 
Cameroons ; Mann, Preuss, Bucholz. 
Cuzengo ; Welwitsch, 4482, 4 is;}. 
Wathen Station, or Ngombe, 34 miles below Stanley Pool ; 
Bentley. J 
" < '>inan»u,S, hu-y/u, //,//, Fmgl., a genuine Ganarium having 
'.;;"';; ">'"/'; l;nJ r l,i;M im '' ' ■«-n confused 
i yield an edible fruit 
and bear similar or perhaps in some districts the same , 
the leaves are snllieiemlx- niiir,. o, i. . '..s.. . 
The first-i 
the Wes 
O^Si^f^n 8 l3 cultivat ^ from St. Thomas and the 
o the Congo at l,..^r nn.i u ;.. «~,„. . i :- _„_ 
