THE AFRICAN RUBBER TREE IGl 



site, oblong or lanceolate-oblong, with acuminate apex, 

 5 to 10 in. long and 1^ to 4| in. broad, undulate, and 

 quite free from liaii's. On the under surface of tlie leaves, 

 m the angles made by the side veins with the midrib, 

 minute pits known as " acarodomitia " occur. The 

 flowers are white or yellowish, conical in the bud and 

 salver-shaped when open ; they are borne in many- 

 flowered, dense, axiUary cymes. The fruit consists of 

 two broad follicles jomed at the base and obtuse or 

 rotund at the apex. The seeds are spmdle-shaped and 

 are furnished with a plumose basal awn of silky hairs. 

 (See Plate VII.) 



The presence of the mmute pits on the under surface 

 of the leaves is a very useful character for distinguishmg 

 Funtumia elastica from the two allied species m the 

 absence of flowers or fruits. It cannot, however, be 

 absolutely relied upon, as leaves of Funtumia ajricana 

 are occasionally found which exhibit the same character. 



The allied species Funtumia ajricana, which does not 

 yield rubber, is widely distributed throughout West Africa 

 m the same situations as Funtumia elastica. It is dis- 

 tmguished from the latter by its much narrower follicles, 

 by its longer cylindrical flower-buds, and usually by the 

 absence of pits on the mider surface of the leaves. The 

 third species, Funtumia latijolia, occurs m the Congo 

 district and m Uganda ; it is of no value as a source of 

 rubber. 



Distribution. — Funtumia elastica is very widely dis- 

 tributed throughout Central Africa. Its western limit 

 is Sierra Leone, and it extends thence right across the 

 contment mto the East Africa Protectorate, and to the 

 south of this hue into the Belgian Congo. The countries 

 from which it has been recorded are : Sierra Leone, 

 Liberia, the French Ivory Coast, Togoland, Dahomey, 

 Northern and Southern Nigeria, the Cameroons, the 

 French Congo, the Belgian Congo, Uganda, and the East 

 Africa Protectorate. 



With reference to its occurrence in the British Colonies 

 and Protectorates in Africa, the tree is especially abun- 

 dant in the Gold Coast (principally m Ashanti), in the 

 Western and Central Provinces of Southern Nigeria, and 

 in Uganda. It also occiu-s, but not so freely, in the 

 southern portion of Northern Nigeria, in the eastern 



