TIMBER TREES 173 



sandy centre, all festooned with long loops of 

 monkey ropes and lianas. These beautiful trees 

 possess fine hard timber, and attain to great height 

 and girth, as also does the Mwangele of the Sena 

 people, which I believe to be a species of Parkia.* 

 Apart, however, from their majestic appearance 

 and great utility, neither of these trees possesses 

 any pretensions to brilliant flowers or very striking 

 appearance ; but now that we have begun to 

 enumerate the vast numbers of different varieties 

 of timber trees, we see at a glance as we pass 

 through the forest that the task is too formidable — 

 there are far too many. Teak trees (Oldfieldia) 

 are found in the same country as the Ebony {Dios- 

 pyros), and not very far off" you are sure to identify 

 a Parinarium of immense height, with a top so 

 extraordinarily rounded that with its vast circular 

 dark green mass of foliage, rising from a stem as 

 straight as a mast, it looks in the distance like 

 some gigantic candle-lamp with a darkened globe. 

 Some of these trees rise to a height of probably 

 over 100 feet. Of other timber trees — and when 

 I speak of timber trees I refer to varieties at least 

 large enough to furnish girth sufficient for the 

 cutting out of a native canoe — there are at least 

 thirteen or fourteen different species, some possess- 

 ing great hardness, with a fineness of grain which 

 takes a perfect polish, and would, I consider, if 

 their fine qualities were known, be in great demand 

 among cabinet-makers. 



A very beautiful feature of the constantly vary- 

 ing African forest scenery is the Bamboo. This 



* I have since ascertained this tree to be the Adina microoephala. 



