314. WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
It is a very large tree, reaching a girth of 12 feet and a bole 
length of about 50 feet, which grows up very readily in old farms 
or clearings in the evergreen forest and lower parts of the 
mixed forests. It has a large, broad leaf, which is deciduous 
for about a month in the year. The flower, which is white in 
colour, is in the form of racemes (?). The bark is green, with 
grey streaks up and down, and the slash is white with yellow 
markings ; it smells sweet, too. The fruit is oblong and black, 
more like a plum. The spurns are very slight. 
The wood is very soft and white all through. It dries 
without warping, but if not cut properly is liable to be attacked 
by small borers of the furniture kind. It planes with a smooth 
surface. It is very light, more so even than Musanga wood. 
The grain is fine, though such pores as there are, are long. It 
splits well and adzes well too. It shrinks considerably in 
drying, but this might be obviated by girdling and drying 
very gradually in shade when cut green. 
It is a very quick-growing tree, almost as fast as Ricino- 
dendron. It is a light-lover, and is rather intolerant of shade, 
except in its youth. It grows best from seed reproduction, 
as the power from the stool is very slight and soon dies back. 
It was sampled in 1912 at Degema, but has not been ex- 
ported to Europe. A trial as a wood for making pulpwood seems 
indicated. It is split up into flat pieces for doors and mantel- 
pieces, also for making the walls of temporary houses, each 
piece being set upright to the other, with any round edge on 
the outside. 
Burseracee. 
Pachylobus edulis. Native Pear (Ohan), Incense Tree, Elemi 
Gum. Ibagho (Yoruba); Onumu (Benin); Eben (Efik). 
It is found in all the Southern Provinces of Nigeria, chiefly 
as a planted tree in the neighbourhood of villages, and on the 
sides of the roads leading to them, being more prevalent in 
the Benin and Oban than the other districts. It is a medium- 
sized tree, reaching a girth of about 7 feet and a height of 
about 70 feet. 
The gum, which exudes when the tree is cut with a 
matchet, smells very much like incense when burnt, and is 
of a white colour. It is always planted in the villages, partly 
for shade, chiefly for food, especially in the Oban country. 
The fruit is first of all a grey, and then a purple colour, 
and a very cylindrical plum shape, in all about 2} inches long 
and rather more than 1 inch in diameter. It is very much 
like turpentine to taste, especially when not quite ripe, and in 
