Liberia <•- 



male with the small flowers in pinkish clusters, the female with 

 solitary larger flowers having 2 long filiform styles ; Grand Basa, 

 Voj^e/, 34 ! 

 A. cordata, Bentli. : a dioecious small tree with long petioled ovate 

 leaves and panicled spikes resembling those of the preceding 

 species ; Sino Basin, Whyte ! — This is the " Christmas Bush " 

 of Sierra Leone. 



URTICACE^ 



Ficus vogelii, Miq. (Plate 264) : a glabrous tree, 20 to 40 ft. high, 

 with shortly ovoid adprcssedly hairy terminal buds, large long 

 petioled elliptic or obovate-oblong leaves (6 — 12 in. by 4 — 6 in.) 

 with 5 — 6 oblique side nerves on each side and close fine reticula- 

 tion, and with brownish receptacles (" fruits ") ^ to almost | in. 

 in diameter, and usually paired in the leaf axils or in clusters of 

 4 — 6 below the leafy ends of the branches ; about 70 miles 

 up the St. Paul's River, Reynolds\; Grand Basa, Vogel\; Sino 

 Basin, Whyte, 19!; Greenville, Shn, 25!; Cape Palmas, Vogel, 

 47 ! — According to some authorities Ficus vogelii would yield 

 the best Liberian rubber ; but recent investigations seem to 

 show that the rubber derived from this species is of inferior 

 quality, being not very resilient and rather resinous. (See 

 Warburg, Les Plantes A Caoutchouc, pp. 250-53.) 



F. sp. : very similar to the preceding species with lanceolate conical 

 quite glabrous buds, f in. long, rather abruptly acuminate or 

 acute-oblong leaves having slightly wavy margins and about 

 10 — 14 side nerves, of which the lowest are very oblique whilst 

 the others spread much ; Greenville, Sim, 13 ! Kuru Country, 

 Sawya's Town, Wliyte, 17 ! — This yields rubber, according to 

 Sim. 



*F. whytei, Stapf (sp. nov.) : a glabrous large forest tree with reddish 

 branchlets, almost subulate terminal buds (f in. long), very large 

 ovate or elliptic-oblong shortly acuminate leaves with asymmetri- 

 cally cordate bases ( 1 2 — 16 in. by 5| — 7 in.) with short stout petioles, 

 about 13 rather spreading side nerves and a rather conspicuous 

 reticulation similar to that of F. vogelii) and paired receptacles, 

 Whyte ! — This yields abundant rubber, according to Whyte. 



F. trianifularis, Warb. : a tree, sometimes scandent with triangular- 



650 



