820 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
up, the stem is covered with brown-coloured bark, which is 
slightly pitted. The leaves are in tufts, though to a lesser 
extent than either K. grandis or Ivoriensis. The large masses 
of small white flowers remind one of lilac. It is of the same 
white colour. It flowers in February, when it is also in new 
leaf. Compared with K. grandis it usually has a shorter and 
somewhat more curved bole. 
Distribution —It is found in the Abeokuta, Ibadan and 
Benin provinces of Nigeria. 
The capsule is of medium size, splitting open into five 
segments which remain attached at the base. On the whole 
it is rather thinner than K. grandis or Ivoriensis, but does not 
come to such a sharp point as either of those two. 
The timber is very similar in grain and texture to the other 
Khayas, but if anything it is a little heavier and a little closer 
texture then either grandis or Ivoriensis, especially in those 
districts where it grows in the mixed deciduous forests, and 
where the base of the trunk is burnt with an occasional 
grass-fire. 
Although not quite so fast-growing as the other Khayas, 
it is a fast-growing tree with soil-protecting and soil-improving 
qualities. Natural regeneration is fair, though the little thin, 
flat seeds are very soon attacked by a little boring insect when 
they fall to the ground. However, when rapidly gathered 
after having fallen, they retain their germinative capacity 
for a greater length of time than in the case of the Entandro- 
phragmas. On the whole, if the locality is not too dry or fires 
too prevalent, this tree tends to widen its area of distribution 
with the spread of farms. The leading-shoot borer attacks 
this tree in its younger stages perhaps even more than the 
other Khayas, more especially when it is planted pure. In 
this connection it should be noted that this Khaya, as well 
as the others, is not gregarious in habit, being always found 
singly, though varying much in number per square mile. This 
factor rather indicates that pure plantations should not be 
made, or at any rate that it should only be planted in small 
groups mixed with other species, also in small groups, from a 
quarter to one acre in extent. In leased timber areas it has been 
planted mixed with other species. On the whole, it has not 
been exported so much as the other Khayas. It has been sold 
as Niger Mahogany. 
Value.—3d. to 6d. per superficial foot from Sapoba, in the 
Benin province. The natives occasionally cut it for sawing 
into planks. 
Khaya anthotheca?. White-barked Mahogany or White Mahogany, 
