THE AFRICAN RUBBER TREE 169 



land, leaving the large forest trees standing in order 

 to afford some shade for the young Funtumia phmts. 

 It has been found, however, that if this method is 

 adopted, it is necessary to cut out the shade trees when 

 the Funtumia trees are about two years old, as otherwise 

 the growth of the latter is interfered witli. The best 

 results appear to be obtained by completely clearing 

 the land so as to remove all shade, and then planting 

 the Funtumia trees closely in coppice formation. 



The trees were formerly planted rather widely, 15 by 

 15 ft. or 20 by 20 ft., but it was found that under such 

 conditions the trees had a tendency to branch low down, 

 and considerable pruning was required to obtain a stem 

 suitable for tappmg. Latterly this difficulty has been 

 obviated by planting the trees very closely in order to 

 encourage the development of a straight, erect stem, and 

 then thinning out when they become too crowded. A 

 commonly adopted distance for planting the trees is 

 6 by 6 ft. and they are gradually thimied to 12 by 12 ft. 

 or 18 by 18 ft. 



The plantation requires little attention during the 

 early stages, beyond filling up any gaps which may occur 

 and protecting the young plants from bemg overgrown 

 by weeds. The thiiming of the trees should be conducted 

 dm-mg the third and foiu^th years, in order that the re- 

 maining trees may have a chance to increase in girth. 



Diseases and Pests. — Funtumia elastica is not subject 

 to any serious diseases or pests in West Africa. The 

 young plants are sometimes attacked by the caterpillar of 

 a moth {Glyphodes ocellata) which feeds on the leaves 

 and may defoliate the trees. Two or three species of 

 girdling beetle also do a certain amount of damage, the 

 beetles themselves gnawing the bark of the young shoots 

 whilst the larvae bm-row m the wood. Two species of 

 these beetles collected by Christy in the Camcroons 

 were identified as Chreostes coeca, Cher., and MonocliamiLS 

 rusjxitor, Fab., whOst another species from Tarquah in 

 the Gold Coast was Acmocera conjux, Thoms. 



A fungoid root disease, similar to Fomes semitostus, 

 has been found attacking Funtumia trees in the Gold 

 Coast, and a "' brown " root disease is also Imown. 



None of these diseases or pests does much damage to 

 the trees. 



