1920.) 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



203 



Three Hundred Million Pounds of Chrysil Rubber. 



THE Lii.Nc; LOOKED i-'oK REi'iiKT upoii rulilier-bearing shnibs in 

 western America has appeared and it is no exaggeration 

 to say that it is one of the most complete, scholarly and 

 practical treatises of the day. It is mainly the work of Pro- 

 fessors Harvey Monroe Hall and Thomas Harper Goodspeed 

 of the University of California and is entitled "A Rubber Plant 

 Survey of Western North America," preceded by a twelve-page 

 reprint on ecologv' from the year book of the Carnegie Insti- 

 tution for 1918. 



This covers study and experiment at desert and mountain 

 sta:ions and through expeditions. The specific work on rubber 

 began in 1917 when a chemical laboratory was fitted up at the 

 Alpine Laboratory at Pike's Peak to w^ork in conjunction with 

 a desert laboratory and the university laboratory at Berkeley, 

 California. Here 18 genera and 30 species were examined chem- 

 ically. These were largely latex plants. Rubber was found in 

 25 of the species examined, but in most it was too minute in 

 quantity to be important. In 11 the percentage was enough to 



varietal names. Part 2, relating to the product of the C. naii- 

 scosus, which is well named Chrysil rubber, will appeal to the 

 rubber manufacturer, just as Part 1 appeals to the botanist. 



Very wisely, at the beginning, 25 pounds of the shrub was 

 sent to Dr. David Spence to get an idea of the value of the 

 rubber. His report was that the rubber was of "high grade 

 and average quality, not as good as the best fine Para, but a 

 great deal better than most Africans or low grade rubbers." 



The Chrysnthamnus. or "rabbit brush," is very widely distrib- 

 uted. The investigators found that "they range in altitude from 

 about sea level in some of the desert basins to 8,000 feet in the 

 ' southern Colorado mountains. Some varieties occur at even 

 higher altitudes, but they have not been examined as to their 

 rubber content. The plants are most abundant and of maximum 

 size in the Great Basin area, becoming more and more scattered 

 and apparently diminishing in their percentage of rubber as we 

 l)ass from this center of distribution. The most northerly points 

 from which we have taken samples for analysis are in eastern 



View of Benton Hills, C.^liforni 



ll.\PLUI'.\pi'L-S W 



WHERE One of the F.xperiment.\l Tracts 

 .\Lso Found Among the Rocks Midway 



Chrvsoth.' 

 THE Hills. 



call for further work and in 4 it was high enough to warrant 

 the hope that the species may serve for tlie production of rubber 

 on a commercial scale. 



The main report apart from the folder on ecology is divided 

 into three parts: 



(1.) The Chrysothamnus nauseosus, by Professor Hall. 



{2.) Chrysil, a new rubber from Clirysolhaiitnus nauseosus, 

 by Professors Hall and Goodspeed. 



(3.) The occurrence of rubber in certain West-American 

 shrubs, by Professors Hall and Goodspeed. 



In the first part, Professor Hall, after a brief general de- 

 scription of the Chrysothamnus, presents a key to the sections 

 of Chrysothamnus which he assembles in five natural groups. 

 Of these the C. nauseosus is the one he selects as containing 

 rubber m sufficient quantity to be interesting. Next comes a 

 key to the varieties of C. nauseosus, followed by a synopsis of 

 the varieties. This latter is a complete botanical description of 

 22 varieties, with extended notes covering occurrence, habitat, 

 etc. This part closes with a very valuable index of specific and 



Oregon (Redmond, Burns, etc.), eastern Washington (Spo- 

 kane), southern Idaho, and southern Wyoming (Rawlins, Lara- 

 mie). The best samples carried only three per cent of rubber 

 and most of them ran less than two per cent. The easterly 

 limits of the genus are reached in South Dakota and western 

 Nebraska; the southerly limits, in western Texas, southern 

 New Mexico, and southern Arizona, with some possible exten- 

 sions into Mexico, or at least into Lower California. On the 

 Pacific Coast we find scattered groups of the plants as far west 

 as the Coast Range mountains; for example, San Benito Coun- 

 ty, -Mt. Hamilton, Lake County, Trinity County, etc." 



.•\ very interesting estimate of what may be expected as 

 lo extracted product is as follows: 



Districts. Pounds. 



^"o. I — ICast Central California and adjacent Xcvado 3,280 000 



No. 2— Mojave desert. California 400,000 



No. 3— Northeastern California and : djaccnt Nevada and 



■,,. "J?"" 1,000,000 



No. 4— \\e5t Central Nevada 7,680,000 



No. 5— Northern and Central Nevada 23,700,000 



'"i,°- ^^r-^J.'",'" •, 20,000,000 



No. 7— Colorado 24,300,000 



