276 NOTES AND COMMENT 



The presence of rubber in the common rabbit-brush (Chrysothamnus 

 nauseosus) of the Great Basin region and interior California led to an 

 extensive investigation of the plant during the war. A recent publica- 

 tion by H. M. Hall and T. H. Goodspeed gives the results of the field 

 and laboratory work, and indicates that this wide-spread plant pos- 

 sesses in the aggregate an amount of rubber that might be of great value 

 under conditions curtailing our foreign supply. An average of 180 

 analyses gave 2.83 per cent of rubber in one variety and slightly lower 

 percentages in others. Chrysil, as the new rubber has been designated, 

 occurs mainly in the cortex and medullary rays of the larger steins and 

 upper portions of the root. The varieties growing in alkaline soil are 

 the richest in rubber, which promises a possible future for these useless 

 lands. 



Mr. Albert F. Hill has contributed a paper on the Vascular Flora of 

 the eastern Penobscot Bay Region, Maine, to the third volume of the 

 Proceedings of the Portland Society of Natural History. This particu- 

 larly rugged portion of the Maine coast has a flora of 747 species and 

 varieties of native and introduced plants. The author discusses the 

 geographical affinities of the flora and the floristic history of the region, 

 particularly as influenced by the glacial period. 



