374 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



cattle-feeding cake, etc. The introduction appears to be yielding 

 promising results in parts of the Transvaal, Natal, Tanganyika, 

 and Nyasaland, but it cannot be regarded as an unqualified suc- 

 cess. A. montana shows much more promise in the more tropical 

 colonies, but so far the number of established trees is small. The 

 production of tung oil in the Empire was surveyed in a memoran- 

 dum by the Imperial Institute, issued by the Empire Marketing 

 Board (1930). 



Experiments have been tried with Cinchona in Africa. Quinine 

 is still too expensive to be used as widely as would be desirable, 

 and India is the only country in the British Empire where it is grown 

 in any quantity. Plantations have been established at Amani for 

 over thirty years; they have been very successful on a small scale, 

 and supplied the German forces in East Africa during the war. 

 Selection work and experimental 'grafting to extend these plantings 

 on a larger scale is in progress, and a small industry has been estab- 

 lished in the Usambara highlands in Tanganyika (Worsley 1935). 

 Several orders for seed have been received at Amani from Kenya, 

 and trials are being made also in Northern Rhodesia and Uganda, 

 and in the Belgian Congo. The Chaulmoogra tree, which in India 

 produces the oil so valuable in the treatment of leprosy, has also 

 been grown experimentally in several parts of Africa. 



The production of essential oils from peppermint, geranium, 

 and lavender promises to become an important subsidiary indus- 

 try, more particularly in East Africa. A special committee of the 

 Imperial Institute, in collaboration with the Royal Botanic Gar- 

 dens, Kew, has rendered valuable assistance in suggesting varieties 

 and supplying planting material: this liaison between botanists 

 and chemists has proved most fruitful. Valuable results have been 

 obtained in Kenya where large geranium farms have been estab- 

 lished near Nakuru, and research on geranium and other oils was 

 carried out at the Scott Agricultural Laboratories. Cedar wood 

 oil is another export. Experiments were being made in 1933 with 

 Muhugu oil from the wood of Brachylaena hutchinsii, oil from a wild 

 grass {Cymbopogon afronardus) and an oleo-resin from the wood of a 

 small tree believed to be Spirostachys africana. In Tanganyika 

 bitter-orange oil has been produced on a Seville orange planta- 

 tion near Tanga, and the oil exported. Small quantities of 



