336 THROUGH ANGOLA 



flowers which blossom on the trunk, and are out 

 of all proportion to the huge fruit that succeeds 

 them, is doing well in northern Angola, where 

 climate, altitude, and soil are alike suitable. 



Rubber. --There are many rubber-yielding 

 plants of the Apocynacese in Angola, such as the 

 creepers of the genus Pacouria or Landolphia, 

 including L. owariensis (Lecongue), L. florid a 

 (Mututi), which may be L. Kirkii, L. crassifolia 

 (Rututi), and L. parvifolia (Mahungo), but 

 none are suitable for plantation, nor are L. 

 Henriquesiana, Carpodinus chylorrhiza (Otalemba), 

 C. gracilis (Vivungo), or Raphionacme utilis 

 (Bitinga), which provide rubber from their tuber- 

 like root alone ; but a tree indigenous to Angola, 

 Funtumia elastica, with a characteristic plumed 

 seed and a good rubber-yielder, might be so 

 employed. Of strictly plantation rubbers, numer- 

 ous varieties have been tried, the most popu- 

 lar for some reason being Manihot Glaziovii, 

 though yielding less than many other varieties 

 and being fragile, both to storms and rough and 

 careless tapping. Herea brasiliensis, Castilloa 

 elastica (the South American plants), and Ficus 

 elastica, the Indian plant, all do well. The rubber 

 is extracted by scientific tapping in the plantations, 

 but by crude destructive methods from the wild 

 plants. Root rubber is obtained by pounding 

 the whole root and separating the rubber in the 

 shape of a mat. Natives often coagulate rubber 

 latex on their bodies before shaping it to per- 

 manent form. 



Cotton is only grown on a small scale, though 



