350 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
It is rather an uncommon tree of the Benin province of 
Nigeria. It is found at the edge of the mixed deciduous forest 
with the dry-zone area of vegetation. 
Firmania Barterit. Rope Tree. Eso or Esho (Yoruba); Akoko, 
Nihau (?) (Benin). 
It is a large tree with duck-egg-green bark and an uneven 
buttressed base, with a bole length of 30 or 40 feet and a girth 
up to 12 feet. 
Distribution.—It is one of the most prevalent trees in the 
Olokemeji Reserve in the Abeokuta province of Nigeria, and 
found all through the mixed forests of the Western Circle 
and also in the Obubra division of the Calabar province, but 
it has so far not been found in the Benin province. 
Use.—A fibre, worth £14 to £20 a ton, is made from the 
bark of young trees attaining 3 inches in diameter. 
A most conspicuous tree in October and November, as it 
is covered with small red flowers and is leafless at the time. 
It has a papery fruit with a small round seed attached to the 
base. These fruits are also most conspicuous in February 
and March, making the tree look as it were covered with red 
flowers’ for a second time. The large, poplar-shaped leaves 
with comparatively long stalks often tremble in the slightest 
breeze in a similar way to the aspen. The wood is soft, white 
and fibrous, with no distinguishing colour between sapwood 
and heartwood. It splits comparatively easily, though, once 
it is dry, with difficulty. It is easy to plane, though difficult 
to obtain a smooth surface owing to the grain often being 
twisted. The light seeds almost float in the air, the result 
being that they are spread everywhere, and thus come up 
chiefly in the open spaces and at the edges of rides and roads, 
almost to the detriment of any other species. It is one of the 
fastest growing of all the African trees, and being a light-lover 
as well, rapidly covers all the available ground. In fact, in 
the mixed deciduous forests it tends to gain in its area of 
distribution year by year. In an enumeration in the Olokemeji 
Reserve, instead of finding a few thousand trees, as in the case 
of most species, hundreds of thousands of this one were found. 
The branches of the young tree grow more or less in whorls 
at right angles to the trunk, and, combined with the compara- 
tively large leaves, thoroughly cover the ground near by. 
Stump sprouts grow after a tree has been felled, though natural 
reproduction by seed is by far the most prevalent method. 
It has not been felled for local use nor has it been exported. 
The Hausas living in Nigeria cut down the small trees (saplings 
1 to 2 inches in diameter), peel off the bark, dry it, and spin 
