We have no very extensive knowledge of the woods of Western Africa, and that to which I have just referred is probably the only useful tree known to commerce in the markets of this country. At the Cape I obtained specimens of the Else and Red Else wood, the light, dark, and grey Stink wood, and the Yellow wood, and understood that all these grew to moderate dimensions, and were useful for building and domestic purposes in the colony; but as there were none within easy reach of Cape Town, or then available for exportation, no opportunity was afforded of judging from any large parcel of either as to their real merits.
A few years since Mr. Macleod, formerly H.B.M. Consul at the Seychelles Islands, procured a great many specimens of woods from the district of the Zambesi, and sent them to the Admiralty.
Annexed is a list of twenty-six varieties, with their names and the dimensions the trees are supposed to attain, as also their uses as given by Mr. Macleod; observing that where an opinion of the quality is stated, it is the best that I could form from small pieces of 3″ × 3″ × 1″.
Some few of these would certainly be fit for any architectural or other works, but we have no information as to their abundance or otherwise, or even whether they could be easily brought out from the forests to a port of shipment.
