THE NIGERIAN TIMBER TREES 241 



fruit, which is borne in large clusters on the terminal shoot 

 of the creeper. 



The light-yellow, long spikes of the male flowers are most 

 conspicuous early in the season, especially when seen from a 

 canoe when passing down a river like the Osse. 



The natives strip off the bark and long shoots of fish-hook- 

 like spines, and use the comparatively smooth canes as supports 

 for the canoe mats and for making tying material for house- 

 building ; it is also used for making rope. When whole, it 

 is used in making bridges as well as for joining logs together 

 for rafting purposes. When cut into short lengths and bent 

 at one end, it can be used for walking-sticks. 



It is rather a slow-growing creeper, and usually ten or 

 twelve grow out of one root stock. In 1904 this cane was 

 examined in England as a substitute for rattan, but it was 

 found to be more brittle, and the internodes were found to be 

 too close together to be attractive as walking-sticks. Still 

 later, in 1908, it was tried for basket work, but was found to 

 be too coarse both in structure and texture of grain. 

 ElcBsis Ouineensis. The Oil Palm, the West African Palm. Ope, 

 Ipa ukoro (Yoruba) ; Udin (Benin), 



It is found in all the Southern Provinces of Nigeria and 

 as far North as Zungeru, in the Northern Provinces. It belongs 

 to the evergreen forest zone, though it will spread with 

 cultivation into the mixed deciduous and dry zones. 



It is the common palm of all the farms and forests of the 

 moist and mixed zone of Nigeria. It bears a bunch of fruit 

 containing as many as two thousand individual fruits in one 

 drupe. In the drier parts there may be only as many as one 

 hundred seeds. There is one forked palm on the right-hand 

 side of the line about seven miles from Ibadan, just beyond 

 Moor Plantation. This is a very rare occurrence, and I have 

 only seen one in twelve years' travelling in Nigeria. The male 

 inflorescence is not unlike a very close horse's tail, turned up 

 on end. The orange-brown-coloured female flowers are very 

 small, and do not last long (a few days). The male flowers 

 always appear first, and above the female in each case. The 

 natives say some trees only bear male flowers, but it is doubtful 

 if this is ever true, except in very isolated cases. It bears 

 fruit in the fifth year, and will go on for about a hundred years. 

 There is a most marked difference in the height of a tree which 

 has grown up in the " high forest " and one which has come 

 up in an old farm, the former being fully 100 or even 150 feet 

 high and the latter only 20 to 30 feet in height. In a similar 

 way the bole of the forest-grown palm is only about 3 feet in 

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