310 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
Indian Satinwood, it ought to command a similar price. It 
has not been felled for local use. The natives occasionally 
cut it for house-building timber, but it is not at all popular, 
owing to its being armed with spikes. 
Zanthoxylum macrophyllum (Oliver). True Benin Satinwood. 
Atagbo (Yoruba); Ughahan, Okor (Benin). 
It is found in the Abeokuta, Ondo, Benin and Calabar 
provinces of Nigeria, in the mixed deciduous forest zone, 
where it is very prevalent, especially in old farms. 
Chief Characteristics.—It has a very large leaf, up to 6 feet 
long, with forty pairs of leaflets, each rather smaller than those 
of Z. Senegalense. There are no thorns on the branches, but 
many on the stem, which is thoroughly armed until old age, 
when most of the woody spikes drop off. It bears a large 
bunch of small, black, spherical-shaped seeds. It is a common 
tree in abandoned farms of the mixed deciduous forest zone. 
The thorns are more sharply pointed than Z. Senegalense and 
not so woody at first, but later form a thorn at the top of 
each wooden protrusion. One specimen found in the Olokemeji 
Reserve had very few wooden protrusions, each armed with 
a thorn, but there were larger leaves than Z. macrophyllum, 
though in all not quite so long. In old age the stem is almost 
smooth, and may reach a girth of nearly 6 feet and a length 
of over 30 feet. The crown is slender and broken up with 
three or four main branches. The base of the bole in old age 
is spotted with yellow lenticels. 
It is a light-loving, quick-growing tree, which does not 
protect the ground, and only to a certain extent acts with its 
leaves as a soil-improving tree. Natural regeneration is very 
good, and on the whole, at the edge of the evergreen and mixed 
deciduous forest zone, with the increase of farms it is tending 
to spread in greater numbers than before, and in some places 
groups of them are found, whereas in the original forest only 
isolated specimens are obtained. No plantations have been 
made with this tree. 
The sapwood is light-yellow and the heartwood of a 
darker yellow shade. In quickly grown trees it is not very 
large, but in the older trees comprises more than two-thirds 
of the diameter of the tree. The timber is hard, fine-grained, 
planing up smooth in texture. It does not take nails well, 
nor split well, saws, however, cleanly, and occasionally shows 
a little figure. 
In 1906 samples of this timber were sold in the Liverpool 
market as Sabicu at 2s. to 2s. 6d. per foot, and reported of a 
very hard nature. Since then, however, none has been cut 
