INDIA-RUBBER OR CAOUTCHOUC. 19 



order Apocynacese ; the species, however, which yield the 

 rubber were but imperfectly understood, nevertheless at- 

 tempts were made in 1877 to introduce the rubber-producing 

 species to Kew. Sir John Kirk, H.M. Consul-General at 

 Zanzibar, thus writes in the "Kew Report" for 1877: 

 " The district called Mungao extends from lat. 9 25' to 

 Delgado, in lat. 10 41'. This last year yielded 90,000 

 worth of India-rubber, an industry that has been created in 

 the last two years by my representation. This year the 

 yield will be more, and other places are now collecting it. 

 Thus, Kilwa and Mombasa will this year probably double 

 the supply, which I anticipate will reach in value not less 

 than 180,000 worth of India-rubber. East Africa to the 

 south that is, from Delgado Bay to the Zambesi is pro- 

 ducing it as well." Two years later, in 1879, a consider- 

 able stock of these plants were got together at Kew, and 

 were distributed to the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide, Bris- 

 bane, Cambridge, U.S., Ceylon, Demerara, Fiji, Jamaica, 

 Natal, Rio de Janeiro, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, and 

 Trinidad. From the material thus collected at Kew, the 

 authorities were enabled to clear up the doubts regarding 

 the identity of the species, both from the East and West 

 Coasts, which yield rubber, the results of which were pub- 

 lished in the "Kew Report" for 1880. These notes are a 

 very important contribution to the knowledge of African 

 rubber-yielding plants, and to the sources of the commercial 

 supply of this commodity, as they proved that from the 

 genus Landolphia the whole of the East and West African 

 rubber is obtained. The following species may be enu- 

 merated : 



L. owariensis.TL\)is species possesses the widest lati- 

 tudinal range, having been collected in Sierra Leone, 

 Angola, Niger, near the mouth of the Congo, and under a 

 slightly different form it was found in North Central Africa 

 by Schweinfurth, who remarks that " it is well known ia 

 02 



