724 



Vernac. names. — Tukuruwa (Hausa, Dahiel, Shaw) ; Igi-oguro, 

 eriko Akpako (Yoruba, Moloney); Mali, Nyiad (Port. E. Afr. 

 Sim); Gwangwala (Nupe, Dalziel); Durwi (Mendi, Sierra 



eon 



5 J 



Leone, Unwin) ; Korosso (Gambia 



Augor (Benin) Thompson].— Bennhoo Palm, Tombo Palm, AYine 

 Palm. 



Old Calabar and Niger Rivers, Oware, Benin, Sierra Leone, 

 Gold Coast, Liberia, Congo, Angola, B.C. Africa, Nyasaland, &c. 



To the Natives of West Africa this palm probably equals in 

 importance the " Oil Palm " (Elaeis guineensis). The leaflets 

 are commonly used for maldng mats and articles of so-called 

 clothing; the petioles for making huts and beds, for roofing 

 and canoe poles, split into narrow lengths they are made into 

 screens — bound together with fibre from the leaves of the same 

 palm— by prisoners, Old Calabar (Holland, Mus. Kew, 1899). 

 The soft inside part of this long midrib of the leaves, often 

 upwards of 30 ft. in length " is used for making a large kind 

 of mat used in travelling, called by the Hausas and in Nupe 

 ' Memme ' ; the fibre of the midrib is also woven with cotton 

 into a kind of cloth in Benin and Yoruba. Fruit (the mesocarp) 

 bitter, occasionally eaten and in a few places oil is made from it " 

 (Bailde, Technologist, iii. 1863, p. 104). " Piassava Oil 

 probably from this species — from Sierra Leone, was reported on 

 as similar in character to palm oil {Elaeis guineensis) and saleable 

 if obtainable in commercial quantity, at similar prices (Bull. 

 Imp. Inst. 1918, pp. 37-38). In places where the Elaeis is scarce 

 the oily substance between the scaly exterior of the fruit and 

 the kernel, although bitter, is eaten with yam, cassada, &c. ; 

 and the oil pressed out of it is, by the women, thouglit superior 

 to that of Elaeis for dressing the hair (Mann & Wendland, 

 Trans. Linn. Soc. xxiv. (1864) p. 245); the mealy layer, between 

 the husk and the hard nut, is eaten in Munchi as a food and 

 also used for medicine, &c. The plaited articles made from the 

 leaf in N. Nigeria include a kind of water-proof hood and cowrie 

 bags. " Bami " or palm-wine is stated to be usually made 

 from this species (Dalziel, Hausa Bot. Voc. p. 97). Pahsot 

 de Beauvois (I.e.) states that the negroes of Oware and Benin 

 call the wine made from the sap " Bourdon." 



" Raffia " fibre is obtained from the epidermis (includmg 

 the cuticle) of the leaf of Eaphia pedunculata, Beauv. {B. 

 Euffia, Mart.) of British East Africa and Madagascar, may 

 also be obtained from this species and samples from Lagos were 

 reported in 1895 as equal to the Madagascar product in colour 

 and texture (Kew Bull. 1895, p. 288), and at that time some 

 small shipments had been made from West Africa (I.e. p. 89). 

 This fibre the principal source of which is Madagascar, realised 

 in January 1913, 25s.-ZU. per cwt. and in January 1920 

 was quoted at 40.«f.-50s. per cwt. (Mon. Circs. Ide & 

 Rafia is commonly used in gardens as a tjing material, ^^. .,.„... 

 purpose it first came into use about 1872. The more important 



