THE NIGERIAN TIMBER TREES 345 



Urena lobata. Bolobolo Fibre. Bolobolo (Yoruba). 



It is found in the Olokemeji Reserve of the Abeokuta 

 province of Nigeria. 



It is a comparatively well-known fibre-plant, but has 

 not, however, been cultivated, the natives having many 

 other profitable crops to grow. 



Bombacaceae. 



Eriodendron Orientale. White Silk-Cotton Tree, Blind Wood or 

 Kapok, Cotton Tree. Araba, Eggun (Yoruba) ; Okha (Benin) ; 

 Ukum (Efik) ; Akbo (Ibo, Asaba) ; Shakka (Brass). 



It is a common tree in all the Southern Provinces of Nigeria, 

 though it is not found in the most northerly part of the drier 

 ones. With the exception of a few scented mahoganies, this 

 is the largest African forest tree. Its huge root buttresses 

 reach up over 20 feet from the ground. Its giant limbs, as 

 thick as an ordinary tree-trunk, stretch out almost 100 feet 

 from, and are supported on, the great column of the bole, often 

 itself over 100 feet high. Large muscular-like protrusions 

 join up the limbs with the trunk and the latter with the root 

 buttresses, giving the tree a peculiar look. The flowers are 

 white, with yellow stamens. The fruit is a soft, oblong, de- 

 hiscent capsule, opening when ripe and releasing black seeds 

 about twice the size of B.B. shot. Attached to this seed is 

 a ball of white fluff. This last is known commercially as Kapok. 

 At the time of the bursting of the capsule of this tree the whole 

 air near by appears filled with white flakes, and the ground 

 later is white as if after a fall of snow. It is almost the quickest 

 growing of all the African forest trees. It grows in the ever- 

 green forest as well as in the mixed deciduous forest. 



The timber is white and soft and inclined to have little 

 yellow streaks. When dry it is brittle, though very fibrous 

 to cut when fresh by either axe or saw. It soon rots when 

 exposed to the weather. Natural regeneration by seed is good, 

 especially on the banks of rivers. It tends to extend its area 

 of distribution with the clearing of the heavy forest area in 

 making farms. It is a light-demanding tree. 



In Germany, before the war, African Kapok found a ready 

 sale at about 9d. per pound. Samples of Kapok were sent 

 to England and were valued at less than those of the East 

 Indian variety. 



The timber has been used as a " blind " wood for furniture, 

 and had a regular market at Hamburg before the war. It has 

 been tested in England for pulp-making, but the fibre is stated 

 to be too short, and so it is of no use for this purpose. 



