The seeds or nuts, which are large and heavy, are distributed by the agency of frugivorous birds and mammals. The grey parrot, for example, may be observed extracting the ripe fruits from the heads or picking them from the ground where they have fallen, and, after conveying these to a convenient tree, carefully removing the oily pericarp before dropping the nut in a new position. Monkeys doubtless convey the fruits to even greater distances in their cheek-pouches.
Owing to the presence of rocky and swampy strips of country in the Protectorate, and the direction in which farm fires have been carried by the prevailing winds, the distribution of palms has been thought to assume the character of “belts,” defined by fairly well-marked boundaries. When looked into more closely, however, the distribution appears to be better described as consisting of dense patches linked sometimes by almost unrecognisable chains of widely scattered trees, and often broken into by short ranges of hills which are completely destitute of palms.
The patches referred to may bear 500 palm trees to the acre, and these may represent 80 to 100 per cent. of the total tree-growth on the patch. The area of such a patch may be roughly estimated at from ¼ acre to 15 sq. miles, or even more, but it should be added that, where such extensive tracts as these occur, the difficulties of transport and the scarcity of the population have constituted obstacles to working, and to the means of preserving the trees. Oil palms near Mafokoyia are shown in the picture ([Fig. 10]).
OIL PALMS (ELÆIS GUINEENSIS), MAFOKOYIA.
Fig. 10, [p. 21.]
NATIVE COLLECTING OIL PALM FRUIT, BLAMA.
Fig 11, [p. 22.]
