350 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



It is rather an uncommon tree of the Benin province of 

 Nigeria. It is found at the edge of the mixed deciduous forest 

 with the dry-zone area of vegetation. 

 Firmania Barteri. Rope Tree, Eso or Esho (Yoruba) ; Akoko, 

 Nihau(?) (Benin). 



It is a large tree with duck-egg-green bark and an uneven 

 buttressed base, with a bole length of 30 or 40 feet and a girth 

 up to 12 feet. 



Distribution. — It is one of the most prevalent trees in the 

 Olokemeji Reserve in the Abeokuta province of Nigeria, and 

 found all through the mixed forests of the Western Circle 

 and also in the Obubra division of the Calabar province, but 

 it has so far not been found in the Benin province. 



Use. — A fibre, worth £14 to £20 a ton, is made from the 

 bark of young trees attaining 3 inches in diameter. 



A most conspicuous tree in October and November, as it 

 is covered with small red flowers and is leafless at the time. 

 It has a papery fruit with a small round seed attached to the 

 base. These fruits are also most conspicuous in February 

 and March, making the tree look as it were covered with red 

 flowers for a second time. The large, poplar-shaped leaves 

 with comparatively long stalks often tremble in the slightest 

 breeze in a similar way to the aspen. The wood is soft, white 

 and fibrous, with no distinguishing colour between sapwood 

 and heartwood. It splits comparatively easily, though, once 

 it is dry, with difficulty. It is easy to plane, though difficult 

 to obtain a smooth surface owing to the grain often being 

 twisted. The light seeds almost float in the air, the result 

 being that they are spread everywhere, and thus come up 

 chiefly in the open spaces and at the edges of rides and roads, 

 almost to the detriment of any other species. It is one of the 

 fastest growing of all the African trees, and being a light-lover 

 as well, rapidly covers all the available ground. In fact, in 

 the mixed deciduous forests it tends to gain in its area of 

 distribution year by year. In an enumeration in the Olokemeji 

 Reserve, instead of finding a few thousand trees, as in the case 

 of most species, hundreds of thousands of this one were found. 



The branches of the young tree grow more or less in whorls 

 at right angles to the trunk, and, combined with the compara- 

 tively large leaves, thoroughly cover the ground near bj'. 

 Stump sprouts grow after a tree has been felled, though natural 

 reproduction by seed is by far the most prevalent method. 

 It has not been felled for local use nor has it been exported. 

 The Hausas living in Nigeria cut down the small trees (saplings 

 1 to 2 inches in diameter), peel off the bark, dry it, and spin 



