THE AFRICAN RUBBER TREE 163 



Chemical Analysis 



Native Methods of Tapping. — In many parts of West 

 Africa it was formerly customary to fell the Funtumia 

 trees in order to obtain the rubber, and this practice 

 still persists in certain districts of the Ivory Coast and 

 Sierra Leone. Sometimes after felling the tree the 

 natives make a large number of mcisions in the bark a 

 short distance apart and encu'cling the trunk. The 

 latex thus obtamed is collected in vessels and subse- 

 quently coagulated. 



Another method adopted in some parts of Sierra Leone 

 is to fell the tree and then to cover the trunk with dry 

 grass, which is set on fire. The heat from the bm-ning 

 grass suffices to coagulate the latex in the bark, which 

 is then stripped off and the rubber extracted from it by 

 beatmg in the mamier described later for Landolphia 

 bark (see p. 195). 



As a general rule, however, the natives collect the 

 latex of Funtumia elastica by tapping the standing trees, 

 a gouge of native manufacture being used for making 

 the incisions. The double-herringbone system is usually 

 employed, and the incisions are carried up the trunk as 

 high as the first branches and sometimes even higher. 

 In many cases as much as 60 ft. of the trunk is tapped, 

 the collector climbing the tree for the purpose by means 

 of slings. The lateral incisions are made from G to 12 in. 

 apart, and they frequently extend right round the trunk 

 or even overlap. The collector cuts the vertical channel 

 as he ascends the trunk and the lateral chamiels as he 

 12 



