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REPORT ON THE CAOUTCHOUC OF COMMERCE. 
• • 
Landolphice species incerta. In the Kew Herbarium and 
Museum are the following : — 
L. species . 
Geographic Distribution. — Tropical Africa, lat. 1° N. 
Bemarks. — tc The leaf of the African Bubber plant.” 
Coll. G. Mann. 
L. species. Prov. Zanzibar. Coll. Dr. Kirk. 
L.floridci ? Bruits and Caoutchouc from the district on the 
Congo Biver. Coll. Dr. Hilliard. 
Carissa species. Wood and rubber collected by Dr. Kirk 
(Livingstone expedition) . 
L. ? “ Shupanga, India Bubber shrub.” Coll. Dr. J. Kirk. 
L. near Owariensis , Shupanga, India Bubber liana, wood, fruit, &c. 
Dar Salam, 1868. Coll. Dr. Kirk. 
General Bemarks. — Of these unascertained species of Landolphice 
which yield Caoutchouc, the Caoutchouc sent by Dr. Hilliard is 
identical with our West coast “ball” Caoutchouc. The last two 
specimens sent by Dr. Kirk are identical, and a portion of the 
stem of the “India Bubber plant of Zanzibar and East tropical 
Africa,” as he calls it, also sent by him, is, at least as far as 
comparison of woods will admit*, identical with the first specimen 
sent under the name of Carissa , and both agree with a piece 
sent by Dr. Africanus Horton from Cape Coast Castle. Dr. Kirk, 
in a letter addressed to Dr. Hooker, C.B. (and which the latter 
has kindly allowed me to copy), says: — “This plant (referring 
to the last sent) is a woody climber, common along the maritime 
region, and abundant at the mouth of the Zambesi, being 
found largely at Shupanga on that river at 100 miles from the 
coast. The produce of this has been shipped from Quillimane for 
America. The fault has been that the rough bark has often been 
imbedded in the gummy mass through careless collection. It is 
not an article of trade at Zanzibar, but I have been endeavouring 
to induce the natives to collect it. John Kirk. December 25th, 
1868.” 
To Dr. Welwitsch however (whose valuable additions to our 
knowledge of the Elora of tropical Africa are so well known) belongs 
the credit of first identifying the plants yielding African Caoutchouc. 
He says (1. c.) it was principally from the L. Owariensis , Beau., that 
he saw the Caoutchouc collected by the natives of Golungo-Alto 
and of Cazengo. 
