521 
AVICENNIA, Linn. 
Avicennia africana, P. Beauv.; Fl. Trop. Afr. V. p. 331. 
Ill.—Pal. de Beauv. ve Oware & Benin, i. t. 47. 
Vernac. names.—Ogb (Lagos, MacGregor); Ede (Benin, 
Thompson); Garigari or Mou (Gaboon, Moloney); Grigri or 
MESH (Sierra Leone, Scott Elliot, Moloney).— White Man- 
p 
Widely distributed on the littoral in West Africa. 
Wood used in boat-building and for piles (Thompson, List of 
For. Trees, S. Nig. 1910, p. 7); for house ok: Sierra Leone (Scott 
Elliot, Col. Rep. Misc. No. 3, 1893, p. 35); g good for shipbuilding 
(Cat. Prod. Col. Frane. Ex. Univ. 1867, p. 46; Moloney, For. 
W. Afr. p. 402). 
A specimen in the Museum, Kew (Mann, er Nun, 1861) has 
a specific gravity of 0-598 = 37 Ib. per cubic foo 
EE barki is used EIE by the natives for the itch (l.c.). 
mple of t ark from Degema, New Calabar River, 
was found to contain on ‘5 per cent. of tannin and not rich 
ough to export to Europe in competition with East African 
Mangrove bark (see p. 304), though suitable for local use. It 
produced a somewhat eek leather, of pale brown colour and firm 
texture. 
A shrub or tree 6-40 ft. high; one of the tallest trees in the 
r r 
Cat. Welw. Afr. Pl. iv. p. 847); in Senegal the fruit has -been 
observed in January (Dollinger, Herb. Kew). The distribution 
and conditions of growth are approximately those of the “ Red 
mangrove” (Rhizophora racemosa, see p. and the method of 
reproduction is the same, the seeds OESE on the trees and 
sending down their long primary radicles into the mu 
LABIATAE. 
Ocimum, Linn. 
Ocimum basilicum, Linn.; Fl. Trop. Afr. V. p. 336. 
Ill.—Lam. Encycl. t. 514; Plenck, Ic. t. 491 ; Nees von Esenbeck, 
Plant. Medic. Düsseld. t t. 184; Hayne, Darst. Beschr. Gewächse, 
xi. t. 3; Guimpel, Abbild. Beschr. t. 137; Nees von Esenbeck, Gen. 
Plant. Fl. Germ. vi. t. 1; Blanco, Fl. Filip. t. 407; Bull. Econ. 
pee € p. 1148. 
Vernac. names.—Efirin wewe (Lagos, wodu); Patmagi 
(Gambia, Brod Lester); Camange (Island à Ciis, Merrill); 
Albahaca ias Rico, Cook & Collins). —Sweet or Common Basil, 
Kirman t (Persia, Dymock). 
Lagos, did widely disiributed in Tropical Africa and Asia. 
An infusion of the leaves used in fevers, Gambia (Brown Lester, 
Kew Bull. 1891, p. 274), by the natives as a cooling drink, Gambia 
(Ozanne, Herb. Kew); the leaves are also used in soups (Brown 
