338 FORESTRY OF WEST AFRICA. 



Mancone of the Portuguese, Bourane, Red-water Tree, 

 Ordeal Bark, &c. {Erythrophlmum guineense, Don). 

 — Large tree, forty to one hundred feet high. Wood 

 highly valued for its hard and almost incorruptible 

 nature. It is said to be used at Bissao and Cacheo 

 for gun-carriages on account of its durability, as 

 also in the construction of houses and in ship- 

 building, as it is supposed to be almost fireproof. The 

 natives value the wood for domestic utensils, as it is 

 stated not to be attacked by termites. The bark of 

 ».his tree is powerfully poisonous, and is administered 

 by native tribes in widely remote regions as an ordeal ; 

 when used for this purpose, it is either chewed by the 

 accused or administered in the form of a decoction 

 which is of a red colour, and generally proves fatal. A 

 decoction of the bark is also used by the natives for 

 poisoning their arrows. — ' Catalogue des Produits des 

 Colonies Frangaises, Exposition Universelle de 1867,' 

 pp. 44 and 45 ; ' Pharmaceutical Journal,' vol. xvi., 

 1856, p. 236, &c. 



Distribution : Upper Guinea, Mozambique Dis- 

 rict. 



Owala of Gabon, Opochala of the Eboe Country 

 (Pentaclethra macrophylla, Benth.). — Tree, fifteen to 

 sixty feet or higher. Seeds used as food on the 

 Niger, and yield a limpid oil adapted to soap-making 

 and lubricating. — 'Flora of Tropical Africa,' Oliver, 

 vol. ii., p. 323. Spon's ' Encyclopedia of the Industrial 



