Liberia <♦' 



thine, an alkaloid of great medical value. As they are perfectly 

 glabrous (hence known in commerce K?i" Strop/iant/tus glabre" 

 or ^". glaber), they cannot well be adulterated or confused with 

 the hairy seeds of other species of Stroplianthus. 



S. sarmentosus, A. P. DC. {syn. S. paroissci, Franck): a tall climbing 

 glabrous deciduous shrub with papery ovate to oblong leaves 

 and small clusters of white long-tailed flowers with pink marks 

 inside and purple scales in the throat (funnel-shaped corolla tube 

 f — ^i in. long, tailed lobes 2 — 2\ in. long) and with horizontally 

 spreading spindle-shaped follicles, 8 — 12 in. by almost \ in., 

 containing brown silky seeds bearing a plumose awn at one 

 end, the awn 2 — 3 in. long ; Monrovia, Wliyte ! 



Isonema smeathmannii, Roeni. and ScJitdt. : a more or less hairy climb- 

 ing shrub with narrow stiff rusty tomentose panicles of reddish 

 flowers (corolla tube ^ in., lobes ^ in. long) and spindle-shaped 

 brown velvety follicles, 5 — 6 in. long; Kakatown, JV/ty/e ! ; Grant's 

 Farm by the Sino River, W/iyte ! 



Funtumia africana, Stapf {syti. Kickxia africana, Benth., Plate 260) : 

 a tree from 15 to 80 ft. high with oblong-acuminate leaves 

 usually with some minute down in the nerve-axils on the under- 

 side, with dense axillary clusters of white or yellowish waxy 

 flowers (over J— | in. long in the adult bud, with the lobes \ — \ 

 in. long) and spindle-shaped, acutely acuminate divaricate follicles, 

 8 — 9 in. long, containing numerous plumose seeds resembling 

 those of a Strophautltus, but with the plume of the awn pointing 

 towards the seeds; Sino Basin, Wliytel Sim, 4! — The rubber 

 obtained from this tree is sticky like bird-lime, and therefore 

 worthless. 



F. elastiea, Stapf {syn. Kickxia elastica, Preuss, Plate 261): a tree 

 up to 100 ft. high, similar to the preceding species, but dis- 

 tinguishable by the leaves having on the underside minute pits 

 and no down in the nerve-axils, the smaller flowers (up to \ in. 

 long in the adult bud with the lobes up to \ in. long) and the 

 oblong-clavate very obtuse and woody follicles (6 in. long) ; by 

 the Sino River, about 40 miles inland, Sim\ — This is one of 

 the most important rubber trees of Africa, concerning which 

 much information can be found in Schlechter's book West- 

 Afrikanisclie Kautschuh-Expedition. The name Kickxia is 

 not applicable to this tree and its African congeners, as it has 



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