RUBBER PLANTING 205 



experiments made the yield of latex was less. Manihot 

 dichotoma also suffered severely from the effects of wind 

 of no great force ; the trees were uprooted and branches 

 were split off in every direction. 



Funtumia. 



Funtumia elastica and its cultivation in Africa have 

 been made the exclusive subjects of a recent book by 

 C. Christy (The African Rubber Industry and Funtumia 

 elastica). From this work the few remarks here given 

 are partly summarised, and for fuller information refer- 

 ence may be made to the original source. 



Some description of the species itself was given 

 in Chapter II of the present work. The seeds retain 

 their vitality well. They are very small, with a plume 

 of long silky hairs, and one ounce of seed is sufficient 

 for 20 square yards of seed bed. As germination at 

 even distances cannot be guaranteed, the seedlings may 

 with advantage be transplanted to a second seed bed 

 prior to planting out in the field. The further operations 

 of planting and cultivation are similar to those adopted 

 in the case of Hevea. 



Very close planting is recommended, to be followed 

 by subsequent thinning. Close planting is said to be 

 necessary in order to obtain straight clean stems, to 

 obliterate lower branches which would interfere with 

 tapping, and in order to minimise the cost of weeding. 

 The thinning subsequently undertaken gradually leads 



