466 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 



It is estimated that there are six or seven million Oil Palms behind 

 Loanda inland, though this sounds rather exaggerated. 



In Nigeria it is most widely distributed in the Southern Provinces, 

 and the densest " stands " are found in each of the river basins wherever 

 the forest has been cleared (see illustration 103). 



Wherever the dry season is very prolonged and the locality shows 

 a shallow soil, overlying laterite or rock, the Oil Palm first of all appears 

 after the forest has been cut down. After a few years the trees are 

 subject to annual grass-fires, and while still bearing fruit they begin 

 to fail and scarcely last half the ordinary period of their life. 

 Localities of that nature are found in the Afikpo, Onitsha, Ifon, and 

 parts of the Ibadan districts. 



The Oil Palm is also one of the first trees to appear after the 

 mangrove swamp and Tombo Palm region is passed in going through 

 the forest zones from the coast inwards. 



26. Varieties of the Oil Palm. — These, according to Professor 

 0. Beccari, of Florence, are as follows : 



Elceis Guineensis. 



Var. albescens. White Oil Palm. Abe-fita or Abe-fufu (Gold 

 Coast). 



Angulosa. Oleporo Eyop (Old Calabar). 

 Ceredia. Adi-be (Gold Coast). 

 Communis. Udin (Benin). 

 Communis forma, dura. Ade-pa (Gold Coast). 

 Idolatrica. Sacred Palm. Abe-Obene (Gold Coast). 

 Intermedia, 

 llacrocarpa. 

 . Marcrocarya. Abubube (Gold Coast). 

 Pisifera. 



Bepandra. Kessede. 

 Rostrata. Mbana Oyop (Old Calabar). 



The Benin people differentiate the Udin or ordinary palm from 

 Ogedin or the King Palm on account of its having smaller bunches 

 of fruit, each fruit being longer and having a softer shell. They also 

 treat Evirommilla or the Palm of Everlasting Life as a separate 

 species. The Yorubas, how^ever, consider that there are three species 

 of Oil Palm. 



According to the German experiments in the Cameroons, the 

 Lisombe or soft-shell Oil Palm does not come up true to type, approxi- 

 mately only 5 to 10 per cent, growing to the true variety. From the 

 locality in which the Lisombe Palm was and is found, it looks as if 

 the high rainfall (over 300 inches) had really been one of the main 

 factors in evolving this type of Oil Palm. In fact, natives who know 

 the ordinary Oil Palm and the soft-shell Oil Palm say it is rather 



