FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 129 



country ? Let business men turn their attention to my 

 remarks. Why do they not get down some of the 

 gum-hunters of the Senegal and explore our own 

 fields ? The result would, I am confident, be bene- 

 ficial and profitable. 



Then further south, beyond the field of "Accra" 

 copal, comes that of the " Ogea " gum, from which we 

 should have a very valuable addition in this direction. 

 In April, 1883, 1 reported from Lagos to Kew Gardens 

 that the tree from which this gum was obtained — the 

 favourite habitat of which is swamp-land — was called 

 in Yoruba " Ogea " (indeed the gum is so named), and 

 was mercilessly treated, natives attaching no value to 

 it The gum was and is used by the natives for fires 

 and for light. Women used it powdered on the body 

 as a perfume. The tree, as is the case with many 

 trees of a like resinous nature, is bored by a grub, 

 which would seem to be a provision of nature, for by 

 means of the boring exudes the juice — later gum. 



In a Paper read before the Society on the 2ist June, 

 1883, Mr. Dyer called attention to the above, and 

 from his paper I have extracted as follows : — 



" Professor Oliver reported upon the specimen that 

 the tree was a Daniellia, though the material was 

 scarcely adequate for fixing the species. But it 

 seemed not to be Daniellia thurifera (Bennett, in 

 •Pharm. Journal,' 1855, xiv., p. 252), the frankincense 

 tree of Sierra Leone; nor was it identified with 

 D. oilonga, collected in Fernando Po by Barter. The 



K 



