236 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



growing, shade-bearing tree. It likes a somewhat rich soil, but 

 can, however, stand in water, and appai-ently withstands floods. 

 Natural regeneration appears to be good. 



The timber has not been cut for export nor for local use. 

 The fronds are occasionally used for a similar purpose as that 

 of R. vinifera, and sometimes the leaves also. 



Native Use. — The fronds and leaves are used in a similar 

 way to those of E. vinifera. The base of the leaf stalk is cut 

 off into lengths up to 6 feet (it almost encircles the tree and 

 extends much further up than in the case of R. vinifera) and 

 laid in stagnant water. After the intervening substance between 

 the fibres has got more or less soft and partly rotted away, 

 the whole is taken out and the fibres cleaned with a kind of 

 comb. These are then diied, and packed together in bundles 

 of 20 pounds upwards, and sold to the European factory as 

 Piassava. This industry is more widespread in the Eket 

 district of the Calabar province, but it has taken a great number 

 of years of thought and careful attention to bring it up to its 

 present dimensions. The cutting of the leaves is undertaken 

 mostly by the men and the rotting and cleaning of the fibre 

 mostly by the women. Before the war Piassava fibre was 

 rarely worth more than £28 per ton. It is now worth over 

 £70. Unless, however, a price of at least £20 per ton is offered 

 in Liverpool market for this fibre, it is doubtful if the industry 

 can be made profitable for everyone concerned, producers 

 included. 

 Raphia vinifera. The Palm Wine Tree, or Tombo Palm, or Bamboo, 

 the last named being the name used by the English-speaking 

 Jekris. Ako (Yoruba) ; Emmaha Augor (Benin) ; Oukot 

 (Efik). 



It is found in the Abeokuta, Ondo, Benin, Warri, Owerri 

 and Calabar provinces and the Colony of Nigeria, at the edges 

 of the streams and rivers in the evergreen forest zone, where 

 it grows in large groups and pure forests. 



It is a medium-sized palm, growing separately with one 

 stem, which clears itself of the leaf fronds for about half its 

 height between the twelfth and fifteenth year. The trunk 

 then is comparatively smooth, except for the very large scars 

 of the leaf stalk. The fronds are the longest of any of the 

 African palms, reaching sometimes a length of 40 feet, roughly 

 sickle shaped ; in section they reach about 2 inches diameter 

 at the broadest part, and are a yellow-brown colour. The 

 leaves come out from the stalk almost at a right angle, thus 

 making them much wider and, owing to their greater length, 

 much finer and heavier foliage than that of the Oil Palm, or 



