104 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



duct, and that there was every sign of the output in- 

 creasing". The specimens in question were obtained 

 from the district between Ilogbero and Ilaso, where 

 the tree w r as then being actively exploited. 



The following month, viz., in May 1895, Mr. 

 Jonathan C. Olubi, F.R.G.S., was able to supply 

 Kew Gardens with some excellent specimens. These 

 were obtained from the Ibadan district, and, as 

 already stated, wrongly identified as a Kickxia. Olubi 

 describes the tree as averaging 60 feet in height, 

 with a diameter of 12 to 14 inches. The trees 

 contain their maximum of milk in the rainy season, 

 towards the end of which they are tapped. If the 

 work is properly done a tree will produce 10 to 15 lb. 

 of dry rubber during the season. Coagulation of 

 the latex of the Funtumia was always regarded by 

 the natives as more or less a secret of the trade. 

 There were employed, however, several methods, the 

 one most generally followed being too objectionable 

 to be countenanced by the European trader, and it 

 was soon abandoned in favour of natural coagula- 

 tion by means of concentration of the latex in the 

 hollowed-out trunk of a certain soft-wooded tree, 

 which possessed the property of absorbing the resin 

 in the latex and detaching the pure caoutchouc in a 

 solid mass ready for immediate drying and export. 

 The system of tapping employed by the natives was 

 that of the magnified herring-bone. First the bark 

 was cut in a vertical direction from the bottom to 

 the top, the line traversing the whole length of the 

 bole, and being about | inch broad, and deep enough 

 to reach the inner bark. This formed the main 



