450 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



known as Apa by the Yorubas and Aligna by the Bonis, contain a 

 valuable oil or other commercial product. 



It has been stated that the beans and pods of Pithecolobium 

 altissimum have been used as a kind of " Dividivi " for tanning leather, 

 but further experiment with these would prove or disprove the point. 



Finally, there is the Calabar bean or Eseri bean, Phyostigma vene- 

 nosum. It is known to the Efiks as Eseri. The deep furrow on the 

 upper side of the bean is most typical of it, and differentiates it thus 

 from the various Mucuna species. It contains two alkaloids, Cala- 

 barine and Eserine. These beans are comparatively well known. 

 Besides being used locally as a medicine and for witchcraft, they are 

 collected and sold for export. The bean used in games, Mucuna 

 urens, has yet to be examined as to its value. 



Amongst the other important families containing nut-bearing 

 trees are the Rhizophoracese. The Inoy nut, Poga oleosa, is obtained 

 from a common tree in the Owerri and Calabar provinces of Nigeria. 

 The local people of the Oban and Calabar districts are very fond of 

 the nut, and leave the tree standing when making their farms. The 

 nuts sell in the Calabar market at the rate of 250 for 3d. They 

 were examined in England and favourably reported on by the Imperial 

 Institute in June 1905. The hard shell is against their general use, 

 as it is so particularly tough and hard to crack. The shell on the nut 

 itself is about one-fifteenth of an inch thick. The kernel is soft, 

 white, and verj^ oily. It has a better flavour than even the Brazil nut, 

 and is pale-yellow in colour. The kernels were valued in May 1906 at 

 from £9 to £10 in England. They contain about 60-8 per cent, 

 of oil, which showed the following constants according to the 

 investigations of the Imperial Institute 



