450 WEST AFRICAN FORESTS AND FORESTRY 
known as Apa by the Yorubas and Aligna by the Benis, contain a 
valuable oil or other commercial product. 
It has been stated that the beans and pods of Pithecolobium 
altissimum have been used as a kind of “ Dividivi.”’ for tanning leather, 
but further experiment with these would prove or disprove the point. 
Finally, there is the Calabar bean or Eseri bean, Phyostigma vene- 
nosum. It is known to the Efiks as Eseri. The deep furrow on the 
upper side of the bean is most typical of it, and differentiates it thus 
from the various Mucuna species. It contains two alkaloids, Cala- 
barine and Eserine. These beans are comparatively well known. 
Besides being used locally as a medicine and for witchcraft, they are 
collected and sold for export. The bean used in games, Mucuna 
urens, has yet to be examined as to its value. 
Amongst the other important families containing nut-bearing 
trees are the Rhizophoracee. The Inoy nut, Poga oleosa, is obtained 
from a common tree in the Owerri and Calabar provinces of Nigeria. 
The local people of the Oban and Calabar districts are very fond of 
the nut, and leave the tree standing when making their farms. The 
nuts sell in the Calabar market at the rate of 250 for 3d. They 
were examined in England and favourably reported on by the Imperial 
Institute in June 1905. The hard shell is against their general use, 
as it is so particularly tough and hard to crack. The shell on the nut 
itself is about one-fifteenth of an inch thick. The kernel is soft, 
white, and very oily. It has a better flavour than even the Brazil nut, 
and is pale-yellow in colour. The kernels were valued in May 1906 at 
from £9 to £10 in England. They contain about 60°8 per cent. 
of oil, which showed the following constants according to the 
investigations of the Imperial Institute : 
Specific gravity of 15°C. .. i 0°896 
Saponification value ais .. 184°49 
Iodine value ee sis .. 89°75 
Hehner value we ae -. 93:00 
Reichert-Meiss] value ae an 1:45 
Acid value .. Ae we -. 39°7 
Titer test .. ae ais ee §22° °C, 
After extraction of the oil the meal gave the following result : 
Expressed on Dry Material. 
Per cent. 
Proteins ee a es -- 41°51 
Sugars, reducing .. oes ws 1-32 
Pa non-reducing (sucrose) .. 2°50 
Other carbohydrates ee -. 86°92 
Crude fibre .. sn es we 9-00 
Ash .. as or we ia 8°75 
