NIGERIA 211 



gum resin. They reach 30 feet or so in height, have white bark which 

 peels ofif in thin sheets, racemes of white flowers and pinnate leaves 

 with serrate leaflets. 



Commiphora Kerstingii, Engl. Dali or Bazana. 



A small tree, commonly used as a fence support around native 

 compounds. The bark is smooth and green, and the soft wood can 

 be hollowed out for quivers, 



Balsamodendron Africanum, A, Rich. Dashi, 



A shrub commoner in the northern regions, extending beyond the 

 Anglo-French boundary. In arid regions it forms a good hedge, with 

 some resemblance to the blackthorn. The leaves and bark are fragrant, 

 and it yields a gum resin which is a variety of African myrrh, 



Khaya Senegalensis, A, Juss, (Meliaceae), Madachi ; " West African 

 Mahogany " of the dry zone. 

 A large tree for the dry savannah region, but one of the smaller 

 of the mahoganies. In the North, where dry conditions prevail, it 

 tends to favour the banks of streams or the edges of marshy meadows, 

 and is never buttressed, but often acquires a good spreading crown. 

 Good timber specimens have been found on the Gurara River, but 

 apart from this, and perhaps some other favoured localities, it does 

 not as a rule exceed about 4 feet to 4| feet in girth. It occurs from 

 Gambia to Nigeria and Kamerun, and is again found as a West African 

 element in the flora of Uganda and Mozambique, Northwards it 

 reaches North Sokoto, but apparently does not extend to Zinder, 

 The bark is a reputed bitter tonic in native medicine, 



Psevdocedrela Kotschyi, Harms. Toman or Tonas ; " Dry-zone Cedar," 

 In Northern Nigeria this is rarely more than a small to medium- 

 sized tree of 20 to 30 feet, and not usually of good straight growth, 

 probably from the effect of annual fixes, but yielding a fine wood. 

 The leaflets are undulate-margined, the flowers are in graceful panicles, 

 appearing about February and March, and the dry, erect capsules, 

 full of winged seeds, split from above downwards in five valves. Occa- 

 sionally little copses of the species occur, as it seeds freely and numerous 

 seedlings arise — most of them, however, doomed to perish in the next 

 bush-fire. In protected localities it might be fostered into a useful 

 timber tree. Natives find various medicinal uses for the bark, 



Trichilia emetica, Vahl, Jan sayi, 



A fairly common tree across Central Hausaland, not often much 

 over 20 feet in height. It has medicinal properties ; the white flowers 

 are fragrant and used to rub the teeth, and the seeds yield a less 

 important oil. 



