47 
perfect draining or the bag put in a box with so many holes for 
the water to escape. This fetches a good, and, I dare say, the best 
value; but unless one can command his own forest the fresh milk 
is hard to get. The sample of rubber sent is of the general pre- 
paration cooked as brought from the tree. If Sosire pia I shall 
me 
appropriate for the tree and any improvement on the e ration 
of the rubber, also for paret the same, I shall thank you very 
much. 
I remain, &c., 
The Dire (Signed) J. C. OLUBI. 
Royal € Gardens, Kew. 
THE RUBBER PLANT. 
e specimens sent by Mr. Olubi led to the identification of 
the new rubber plant as Kickxia ne Benth. Of this plant 
we had very little previous information 
In May 1888, a sample of seeds area * India-rubber seeds ” 
from Winnebah, Gold Coast, West Africa, was forwarded to Kew 
by Messrs. J. Bowden & Co., Liverpool. The seeds were stated to 
be worth 72s. per lb. There was, however, no further reference 
made to the plant yielding them as a source of India-rubber. The 
seeds were determined as those of Kickxia africana, Benth., a 
tree of the order Apoc. eae, kn ca, 
from Sierra Leone to the delta of the Niger, and in the island of 
Fernando Po. As the seeds were then i mm 8 a substi- 
erc 
tute for Strophanthus seeds, it was inferred that the high price 
they fetched was due to this and not to their value as a means of 
propagating India-rubber plants. In fact, it seems that they were 
never suspected to have any other importance than that they lent 
em 
ron Mr. LUE 8 letter quoted above it von s appear that the 
ew arl 1583 a rubber tree, and 
this evidently accounts for the sample of pir? sent by Messrs 
Bowden . to Kew, in 1888, being called India-rubber seeds, 
rue vernacular name of the tree is spelt Ire, Iré, Irai, Ireh, and 
A similar nam re” occurs in Numer s List of Timbers 
in | Forestry y of West Pede . 207, No. 6. It is there applied 
to a tree 25-33 feet high and f feet in Em, but no further 
Dilar are given. 
The description of Kickxia africana a up by Bentham for 
Hooker’s Icones Plantarum (t. 1276) was based upon rather scanty 
Z Notes on false Strophanthus seed, in Pharm. Journ. Vol, XVII. (1887) 903, 
t New Commercial Plants and Drugs (1887), No. 10, p. 11, ane fig. 7 on p. 10. 
+ Kickxia and Stro thus, in Z. öst. Apoth. 1887, Nos. 20, 
nde iere la matiére vélo par ia fail des Apoeynées (50) « 
PP. . 
