282 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
it is often not much more than a shrub, or at most a small 
tree 35 feet in height. 
The sapwood is white and wide. The heartwood is of a 
deep-red colour, especially when freshly cut ; when dry it still 
retains a good red colour, and from this feature it has been 
termed “red” oak. The timber saws fairly well, but splits 
badly ; it is somewhat hard to plane it up to a smooth surface, 
as it is sometimes cross-grained. The heartwood is termite- 
proof ; it takes nails only moderately well. It is a moderately 
hard and durable wood ; it does not warp very much. When 
the logs are dry they will float in water. The weight of the 
timber is 55 pounds per cubic foot. 
Considering the prevalence of the tree, natural regeneration 
is poor—rodents may account, of course, for many of the 
beans; it sprouts well from the stump. In the dry-zone 
forest region root suckers appear too. It is a shade-bearing 
and soil-improving tree; it does not grow very fast. No 
plantations have yet been made with this tree, though it 
deserves a place in experimental plantations. It demands a 
good soil, and the roots go down to a greater depth than many 
of the other trees. 
Locally it is used as a house-building timber, and occasion- 
ally the dried pods are used as firewood. 
In 1906 sample logs of this tree were sold in the Liverpool 
market as red oak at 2s. per cubic foot. It was not considered 
as good as Aligna or as Erumacie. Since that date no further 
shipments of this timber have been made. A further testing 
of the market by small trial shipments of logs would thoroughly 
reveal its value as an export timber. 
Berlinia auriculata (Benth.). Red Oak. Ekpagoize (Benin). 
Found near the Okwo River in the Siluko sub-district of 
the Benin province. It is not quite such a large species as 
the B. acuminata. 
Parkia biglobosa. African Locust. Aridan Abatta, Irugbo Abatta 
Iru (Yoruba); Ubgori, Lakobemi, Enymi (Benin) ; Inya (New 
Calabar) ; Ekok (Oban, Ekoi). 
It is a very common tree in the Calabar, Owerri, Warri, 
Benin, Ondo (?) and Abeokuta provinces of Nigeria. 
It is a large tree, with wide spreading fruit flanges. It has 
darker and heavier foliage and a wider crown than Parkia 
filicoidea. It often shows up on river banks with its light- 
red young leaves. It should be easily distinguished from 
other similar trees of this family by its cluster of beans, similar 
to French beans, when ripe. These are yellow, and the spice- 
like scent and the round balls of staminate flowers of a crushed 
