THE NIGERIAN TIMBER TREES 845 
Urena lobata. Bolobolo Fibre. Bolobolo (Yoruba). 
It is found in the Olokemeji Reserve of the Abeokuta 
province of Nigeria. 
It is a comparatively well-known fibre-plant, but has 
not, however, been cultivated, the natives having many 
other profitable crops to grow. 
Bombacacee. 
Eriodendron Orientale. White Silk-Cotton Tree, Blind Wood or 
Kapok, Cotton Tree. Araba, Eggun (Yoruba); Okha (Benin) ; 
Ukum (Efik); Akbo (Ibo, Asaba); Shakka (Brass). 
It is a common tree in all the Southern Provinces of Nigeria, 
though it is not found in the most northerly part of the drier 
ones. With the exception of a few scented mahoganies, this 
is the largest African forest tree. Its huge root buttresses 
reach up over 20 feet from the ground. Its giant limbs, as 
thick as an ordinary tree-trunk, stretch out almost 100 feet 
from, and are supported on, the great column of the bole, often 
itself over 100 feet high. Large muscular-like protrusions 
join up the limbs with the trunk and the latter with the root 
buttresses, giving the tree a peculiar look. The flowers are 
white, with yellow stamens. The fruit is a soft, oblong, de- 
hiscent capsule, opening when ripe and releasing black seeds 
about twice the size of B.B. shot. Attached to this seed is 
a ball of white fluff. This last is known commercially as Kapok. 
At the time of the bursting of the capsule of this tree the whole 
air near by appears filled with white flakes, and the ground 
later is white as if after a fall of snow. It is almost the quickest 
growing of all the African forest trees. It grows in the ever- 
green forest as well as in the mixed deciduous forest. 
The timber is white and soft and inclined to have little 
yellow streaks. When dry it is brittle, though very fibrous 
to cut when fresh by either axe or saw. It soon rots when 
exposed to the weather. Natural regeneration by seed is good, 
especially on the banks of rivers. It tends to extend its area 
of distribution with the clearing of the heavy forest area in 
making farms. It is a light-demanding tree. 
In Germany, before the war, African Kapok found a ready 
sale at about 9d. per pound. Samples of Kapok were sent 
to England and were valued at less than those of the East 
Indian variety. 
The timber has been used as a “ blind ’’ wood for furniture, 
and had a regular market at Hamburg before the war. It has 
been tested in England for pulp-meking, but the fibre is stated 
to be too short, and so it is of no use for this purpose. 
