33 
sends also the rubber from them, but, as you will see, it is ver y 
badly made. Can you say which is the most valuable of these 
four vines ? 
Three of the four specimens sent were wholly inadequate for 
any determination. But one called Npok was identifiable as 
Landolphia owariensis, which is found from Sierra Leone to 
Angola and is no doubt the most important source of West African 
rubber, [See Kew Report for 1880, p. 38. 
An investigation into india-rubber milk received at Kew from 
the Ni iger delta i is described in the following correspondence :— 
38, Elthiron Road, Fulham, S.W., 
DEAR pee 14th September, 1888. 
SEVERAL gentlemen to whom I have applied for information 
about indie ruber have recommended me to communicate wi 
you cw therefore venture to ask if you can help me, and trust 
explain myself fully, let me say that I have for some years been 
trading on the West Coast of red ga in the oil rivers (the deltas 
of the Na ger). For some time past we have been endeavouring to 
introduce and foster the india- e trade, and have been 
partially successful. There are quantities of rubber trees and 
vines, but the natives of these districts, having hitherto never 
cultivated the article, are quite ignorant of the mode of preparing 
the milk obtained from these trees and vines to convert it into a 
commercial form. We are quite certain that this matter will 
open a wide field of commerce to the benefit of the native, the 
trader, and the consumer, if we could learn the m 
treatment. What I wish to ask you is if you can inform me of 
the best mode of congealing the milk as it is obtained from the 
notice, I will most gladly furnish you with a larger sample for 
experimental or other purposes 
(Signed) JAMES S. COCKBURN. 
W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, gua Š 
Royal Gardens, Kew 
ROYAL GARDENS, KEW, to MR. JAMES COCKBURN. 
Royal Gardens, Kew, 
SIR, 2nd No vember, 1888. 
I BEG to forward herewith a copy of a report received from 
S. W. Silver, Esq., F.L.S., on the sample of rubber milk from the 
delta of the Niger which you recently forwarded to this 
establishment. 
9. I regret to ron het this substance is not of a character 
likely to be of us merce, and the results of the experi- 
ments are such as ' preclude any hope of solving the gosten of 
coagulating the milk in a satisfactory manner on this si 
25871 C 
