378 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
leaves form some of the finest soil found in the forest. Natural 
regeneration is not usually very good, because the seedlings 
have little or no light, growing as they do from seeds which 
have fallen under the parent tree. Duika and various other 
animals spread the seeds in old farms where the trees have 
a chance of growing up. The timber has occasionally been 
shipped to Europe and has been sold at Hamburg as pearwood at 
6d. per superficial foot, but the more rosy and figured wood has 
also found a sale in Liverpool, as it sometimes looks almost like 
a pinkish mahogany ; it is, however, by no means well known, 
and further trials with the wood should certainly be made. 
Small consignments of the nuts have been exported from the 
Cross River and sold in Liverpool as a substitute for Shea nuts ; 
they are found to be of a similar nature and of similar value 
for making an edible oil. The original cost was rather 
high, so that the nuts did not yield a profit on the transaction ; 
however, with greater quantities being brought the cost should 
not be so high, and also, since this first experiment was made, 
the price of all oi] nuts has risen enormously, so that at the 
present time there is an ample margin between the cost of 
production and the selling price. In the Cameroons the Balong 
natives dry the nuts, which they split open in two pieces, pick 
off the thin shell and boil out the thick buttery-like substance, 
which is used for cooking. 
On our tour through their country we also tried it in place 
of lard, and found it quite suitable and quite pleasant to the 
taste and only about half the cost. In Nigeria, only the Oban 
people apparently know anything about making this butter 
from the nuts; in other parts it is quite unknown. The 
tree is not felled, but, on account of its size and all-inspiring 
form, is considered “Ju-ju”; pieces of the bark are 
chipped off and used as medicine to increase a person’s 
strength. 
By the way, the constant cutting away of the bark at the 
base of the tree and the continual struggle of the tree to overgrow 
these wounds causes the grain to grow quite unevenly and 
wavering, thus forming figured wood. 
Mimusops lacera. Benin Pearwood. Aganokwi (Benin). 
In 1906 samples of this timber were sold in the Liverpool 
market as mahogany of a good, rich colour. It is found in 
the swamps near the Osse and Cross Rivers. 
Dumoria Heckeli (A. Chev.). Oban Mahogany. 
It is found in Tropical West Africa. It yields a fair timber. 
An immense tree of the Oban Reserve, similar to Mimusops 
Djave. 
