AGRICULTURAL BULLETIN 
OF THE 
STRAITS 
AND 
FEDERATED MALAY STATES. 
No. 5.] MAY, 1907. [VOL. VI. 
AFRICAN RUBBER- VINES. 
The story of the African Rubber-vines is the subject of a paper by 
M. E. de Wilde man in the Notes sur les plantes ute de la Flore 
du Congo , Vol. II, fasc. p. 5 He gives an account of the discovery 
and exploitation of the rubber-vines of the Cameroons from M. 
Waldan, Extinction of African Rubbers ( India Rubber World 
Jan. 1, 1905). M. Waldan discovered Landolphias wild in abun- 
dance in the mountains, and taught the natives to collect the rubber 
warning them against destroying the vines. 
As might be expected they paid no attention to this latter 
recommendation and in three years all the vines in the mountains 
were destroyed. The same thing has happened in other parts of 
Africa, and M. Waldan thinks that in 15 years the exportation 
of rubber from Africa will be trivial, the forests being destroyed. 
M. WlLDEMAN does not agree with this because many young vines 
and Funtumias will be left which will develop iater, and also many 
of the vines cut down will shoot up again. This may be so but 
one must remember that the destruction of the upper parts of the 
Landolphias must destroy the fruit and prevent the rapid repro- 
duction of the plant. Exactly the same thing would happen to 
the Landolphias as has happened to rattans in many places near a 
populated district. The rattans being constantly cut before fruiting 
have practically disappeared. Willughbeia firma the Akar Ge- 
grip of the Malays represents the African Landolphias and 
produces rubber quite as good. What has happened to this plant 
here? It has by no means been exterminated though in time gone 
by the vines were sought by Dyaks and Malays for the rubber. In 
former years Malays used to take passes to collect this rubber in 
the Government forests, but in spite of the high price of rubber 
one hears of very little Willughbeia rubber being collected now. 
The plant is by no means rare, but it is too scanty to be worth 
while seeking for. 
M. Wildeman quotes M. Booth’s paper Eoniges Uber Landol- 
phia in the Tropanpflanzer (Dec. 12, 1905), in which he proposes 
as the only way to preserve the vines against irrational exploitation 
