30 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



timber has an open, pretty grain. It is one of the trees which comes 

 up in old farms, provided rainfall is moderate. 



14. Satinwood [Zanthoxylum macrojjhylliim) is a medium-sized 

 tree with a clear bole of 30 feet, combined with a narrow crown and 

 small branches. It is a very common tree in the peninsular forest, 

 and it is also found growing up in the old farms, where the rainfall 

 is adequate (60 inches). The wood is the typical light-yellow colour. 

 The grain of the timber is very fine and hard, which makes it less 

 liable to shrink than other more open-grained woods. The heartwood 

 forms early, though where trees grow up very quickly, loughly only 

 half of the diameter width of a tree is made of heartwood. That is 

 to say, in a tree a foot in diameter, approximately 6 inches will be 

 heartwood. In the evergreen forest there is another species of 

 Zanthoxylum which attains a rather larger size than the first named. 

 It is, however, not quite so prevalent as the other species. In common 

 with other species of Zanthoxylum, it bears all round the stem extremely 

 large woody spines. In this sj)ecies the spiny protuberances are exactly 

 like small round cones of wood, with a diameter 2 inches at the 

 base. Yet a third species of Zantlioxylum Senegalense yields a similar 

 satinwood, almost as close grained, which, however, is found growing 

 as a small tree at the edge of the deciduous forest before the dry- 

 zone belt is reached. This tree is characterised by its much smaller 

 leaf, with pinnae broader in proportion to their length than the 

 former species. In a similar manner the woody protrusions on the 

 stem do not project more than three-quarters of an inch from it, 

 compared to those of the second-named species, which attain a length 

 of 3 inches. The timber of this dry-zone Satinwood is just as valuable 

 as the former species. It is fairly prevalent in the more open forest 

 where it is found. It withstands the annual grass fires to some extent, 

 and seedlings appear in the neighbourhood of mature trees. 



15. Violetwood is a medium-sized tree with a smooth bark not 

 unlike beech, and a bole of up to 20 feet in length and 12 feet in girth. 

 It is, however, a little crooked in growth, but this is not an undesir- 

 able feature, because the texture of the grain often thus becomes 

 figured. Specimens which were collected showed this growth, and 

 a few species had a very pretty figured grain. It is quite a common 

 tree in the peninsular forest. The fruit of this tree is a pod about 

 a foot long and an inch wide, containing on the average eight oblong 

 flattish beans. The wood is of a greenish-brown colour, and is very 

 hard, heavy and durable, judging by the timber of fallen trees. The 

 timber when planed has a scent of violets, hence the English name 

 which I have given to it. The tree has not been cut for use as an 

 export timber, though it is well worth a trial. It is not used locally, 

 so that all available supplies of timber could be used for export. 



16. Pterocarims erinaceus (African Rosewood) is a small tree of 



