270 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



The natives use the fruit medicinally and the timber for house- 

 building. The pods are usually about a foot long and half an 

 inch in diameter. 

 Cassia toro. Cassia. Ako Kere (Yoruba). 



It is found at Olokemeji, in the Abeokuta province of 

 Nigeria. Its medicinal use as a remedy for ringworm is not 

 known to the natives of that locality. 

 Cassia fistula. Cassia. Bembedo (Yoruba). 



It is rather an uncommon tree of the Benin province of 

 Nigeria, one specimen being found in the Idah district ; 

 the longer (1 to 2 feet) and stouter (f to 1 inch) pod is most 

 typical of this tree. It is otherwise much the same size as 

 Cassia Sieberiana. The natives use the fruit medicinally, 

 but look upon the tree as a " great medicine." 

 Cassia podocarpa (G. and P.). Cassia. Asunwon (Yoruba). 



It is found in the Olokemeji Reserve. 



Shrub with j^ellow flowers. 

 Cassia occidentalis. Blackwater Plant. Rere (Yoruba). 



It is a small shrub-like herb with large upright flowers, 

 which is usually found growing in waste places at the edge 

 of villages in the Yoruba country, in the mixed deciduous 

 forest zone. A medicine to cure blackwater fever is made 

 from this plant, though doctors now say it is not an infallible 

 cure. 

 Ormosia laxiflora (Benth.). False Dalbergia. Shedun (Yoruba). 



It is found in the Ibadan, Abeokuta, Onitsha and Ogoja 

 provinces of Nigeria, chiefly at the edge of the dry-zone forest. 



It is a small tree, 12 feet high and 18 inches in girth, with 

 almost brick-red or orange-coloured bark, which is thin and 

 often scarred by natives. It has a long, thin pod with thin, 

 flat seeds. It reminds one very much of a small Dalbergia. 

 It stands the annual fires well, though it gets singed each year. 

 The base of the bole is often somewhat enlarged with the 

 constant cutting of the bark both of the stem and the upper- 

 most roots. 



The timber is yellowish-red and not very hard, but rough 

 to work up, being more in the nature of a turner's than a 

 joiner's wood. The grain is often by no means straight, and 

 the wood shows a little figure. 



Withstanding the fires so well, it serves, or should serve, 

 as a nurse for the introduction of more valuable species amongst 

 the dry-zone trees, especially on the laterite soils. Natural 

 regeneration is good and it sprouts well from the stump. Root 

 suckers do not appear to be so prevalent as in many dry-zone 

 species. It is a light-loving species, which does not protect 



