48 



tivation. Its discovery lias compensated the African out- 

 put for the loss of Landolphia rubbers through excesive 

 tapping. Some nice samples of clean Funtumia were ex- 

 hibited from the Gold Coast and Uganda — and improved 

 methods of preparation are being carried out in these pos- 

 sessions — but much of the trade rubber is prepared by 

 boiling, a method open to many objections ; and the market 

 price of such rubber is about 2/8 with fine hard Para at 



4:/6h 



Carpodinus lanceolatus and Clitandra Henriquesiana 

 are the so called root rubbers. These are semi-herbaceous 

 plants found in the Congo and as far as Portuguese South 

 West Africa and North West Khodesia. These little 

 plants grow from 1-2 foot high and contain some latex in 

 the leaves and stems but principally in the creeping under- 

 ground rhizome. To obtain the rubber the whole plant is 

 removed, the roots are cut into lengths, dried, and after- 

 wards macerated in water for some days when the caout- 

 chouc can be beaten out, but as the resulting rubber is 

 mixed with particles of the plant such impurities detract 

 from its market value. 



Its growth is probably too slow for remunerative cul- 

 tivation, as it does not appear to be utilized in any of the 

 many plantations now being formed in many parts of 

 Africa. 



Tahernamontana, crassa is a dwarf growing tree 

 native of Seirra Leone and supplies of the rubber from 

 that country and the Gold-Coast, This plant is grown in 

 the Botanic Gardens of the Straits and at Kuala Kangsar, 

 Perak, where it attains the dimensions of a moderate sized 

 tree. The yield of latex is scanty and the percentage of 

 caoutchouc low. Another species of Tahernamontana 

 supplied much of the rubber exported from Madagascar 

 after the Landolphias had been exhausted but this, too, in 

 turn, soon largely diminished owing to excessive tapping. 

 A third rubber producing species T. Thurstoni — a moderate 

 sized tree — grows in Fiji and produces some rubber. 



Mascarenhasia elastica (N'harasika or Mgoa Rubber 

 tree) a native of British and Portuguese East Africa sup- 

 plies an addition to the rubber exported from those coun- 

 tries. The annual value of the rubber (including Landol- 

 jj/iia Kirkii) exported from British East- Africa averages 

 £20,000. There are a few specimens of this species in the 

 Singapore Botanic Gardens. 



