91 
Angola Rubber (Carpodinus gracilis, Stapf).—Under the heading 
“Rubber Production in Angola,” an article appeared in a recent 
number of the Board of Trade Journal, from information supplied 
by Mr. H. G. Mackie, H.M. Consul at Loanda, in which it is 
stated that the above-mentioned plant is the source of “ Wild 
Rubber ” collected in that region. 
‘In Flora of Tropical Africa, vol. iv. p. 84, Dr. Stapf describes 
this species of Carpodinus as a dwarf, somewhat prostrate shrub, 
distributed in Lower Guinea and South Central Tropical Africa, ~ 
and on p. 599 states that (according to De Wildeman and Gentil) 
the latex is useless. Several species of this genus are, however, 
known to yield good rubber, including C. lanceolata, which is stated 
to be the source of most of the root rubber of the, Congo. 
From the article in question, it appears that careful investigations 
have been conducted by a Government botanist in the regions lying 
between the rivers Cutato and Cutchi and the Cubango and Cului 
on the plateau of Benguella. Among the numerous latex-yielding 
the native continues the beating operation until the whole is reduced © 
to a spongy elastic mass, known in the trade as a “manta” or 
sheet. The “manta” at this stage consists of the rubber threads 
binding the broken bark that has been reduced to powder. It is now 
worked in cold water and again beaten. Repeating this working 
and beating process, the native is able to prepare a physically almost 
pure rubber, at the expense, however, of great labour. For this 
last reason it does not always pay him to clean the rubber too much, 
After this working and beating process, the spongy mass turns into 
a flaccid rubber sheet of less than half an inch in thickness and 
characteristic sausage-like form of about 10 inches in length, 
be preserved from damage. The drying of the rubber has to be 
attended to by the buyer. The native frequently collects large loads 
of stems and rhizomes in the cold and dry season far away from his 
village, and the loads are brought in and stored for weeks before 
the rubber is extracted. If there is much dry material to work, 
it is immersed overnight to render the bark more malleable and 
less adherent to the wo : 
The rubber in question is classified as second-class rubber in 
Angola, as it is usually badly cleaned, i.¢., full of particles of bark. 
