310 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



Indian Satinwood, it ought to command a similar price. It 

 has not been felled for local use. The natives occasionally 

 cut it for house-building timber, but it is not at all popular, 

 owing to its being armed with spikes. 

 Zantlioxylum macrophyllum (Oliver). True Benin Satinwood. 

 Atagbo (Yoruba) ; Ughahan, Okor (Benin). 



It is found in the Abeokuta, Ondo, Benin and Calabar 

 provinces of Nigeria, in the mixed deciduous forest zone, 

 where it is very prevalent, especially in old farms. 



Chief Characteristics. — It has a very large leaf, up to 6 feet 

 long, with forty pairs of leaflets, each rather smaller than those 

 of Z. Senegalense. There are no thorns on the branches, but 

 many on the stem, which is thoroughl}' armed until old age, 

 when most of the woody spikes drop off. It bears a large 

 bunch of small, black, spherical-shaped seeds. It is a common 

 tree in abandoned farms of the mixed deciduous forest zone. 

 The thorns are more sharply pointed than Z. Senegalense and 

 not so woody at first, but later form a thorn at the top of 

 each wooden protrusion. One specimen found in the Olokemeji 

 Reserve had very few wooden protrusions, each armed with 

 a thorn, but there were larger leaves than Z. macrophyllum, 

 though in all not quite so long. In old age the stem is almost 

 smooth, and may reach a girth of nearly 6 feet and a length 

 of over 30 feet. The crown is slender and broken up with 

 three or four main branches. The base of the bole in old age 

 is spotted with yellow lenticels. 



It is a light-loving, quick-growing tree, which does not 

 protect the ground, and only to a certain extent acts with its 

 leaves as a soil -improving tree. Natural regeneration is very 

 good, and on the whole, at the edge of the evergreen and mixed 

 deciduous forest zone, with the increase of farms it is tending 

 to spread in greater numbers than before, and in some places 

 groups of them are found, whereas in the original forest only- 

 isolated specimens are obtained. No plantations have been 

 made with this tree. 



The sapwood is light-yelloAv and the heartwood of a 

 darker yellow shade. In quickly grown trees it is not very 

 large, but in the older trees comprises more than two-thirds 

 of the diameter of the tree. The timber is hard, fine-grained, 

 planing up smooth in texture. It does not take nails well, 

 nor split well, saws, however, cleanlj^ and occasionally shows 

 a little figure. 



In 190G samples of this timber were sold in the Liverpool 

 market as Sabicu at 2s. to 2s. 6d. per foot, and reported of a 

 very hard nature. Since then, however, none has been cut 



