THE NIGERIAN TIMBER TREES 285 
its beautiful clusters of lilac-coloured, pea-shaped flowers, 
and later in delicate contrast to the fresh, light-green leaves. 
The trunk is usually not quite straight, being bent about 8 or 
10 feet from the ground. The bark is smooth, thin, and almost 
of a silvery-grey colour. The branches are very whippy and 
difficult to break. 
Timber.—The wide sapwood is white and the narrow heart- 
wood green-brown when freshly cut. It is very hard, of fine 
grain and texture, and planes with a smooth surface. It does 
not split; is very rough and flexible. 
It is a shade-bearer and grows slowly. The fruit is a small 
black and pointed pod which opens when ripe, having about 
three or four beans inside. It is easily killed by fire, but 
sprouts freely from the stool. It does not crack nor warp. 
It has not been exported nor cut for local use, but it should 
be a good wood for turnery. 
Native Use.—It is used for knives and .axe-handles. 
Cynometra Afzelii. Waterside Cynometra. Akushunmajadin, 
Alade (Ikale); Iku (seeds), Aka, Eggi (Yoruba); Ogabezzi, 
Ogikiomi Upakeka (Benin). 
It is a common tree in the Benin province of Nigeria. On 
the whole it is smaller than C. Mannii, though it has a similar 
habit. It grows, too, in similar localities, though for the most 
part it is confined to the evergreen forest zone. It also 
grows more or less in gregarious groups. The shade of this 
species is just as dense, if not denser than that of the fore- 
going. The leaf of the Cynometra is distinguishable from most 
other leaves because the mid-rib of it is placed towards the 
inner or almost straight-sided edge of the leaf. In fact, if 
two leaves are held closely together, they almost look as if 
they were one which had been cut in half. Benin natives 
have no use for this tree except as firewood. 
Cynometra Mannii. Waterside Cynometra. Ekkun (Yoruba). 
It is a common tree on the banks of streams in the Ibadan 
and Abeokuta provinces of Nigeria. One of the most charac- 
teristic features of this tree is the pinkish-red colour of the 
fresh leaves, hanging at the ends of the drooping branches. 
In November each year the large, corrugated, single bean in 
each almost indehiscent pod is another curious feature of 
this tree. The trunk is usually short—in fact, often divided 
into three or four separate stems, almost at the base. Narrow 
fringes consisting almost entirely of this species are found 
on river banks. The dense shade cast by this tree prevents 
any other species from growing underneath. The timber is 
hard and difficult to split, and apparently it is not attacked 
