98 



The type of the genus is Kokia Rockii Lewton. His paper, 

 which forms No. 5 of Vol. 60 of Smithsonian Miscellaneous col- 

 lections, is entitled Kokia: A New Genus of Hawaiian Trees, 

 and was issued October 22, 1912 ; it is illustrated by 5 plates, two 

 of which were furnished by the writer. At the request of Mr. 

 Fairchild, the writer caused seeds of Kokia Rockii to be gathered 

 which were forwarded to the Bureau of Plant Industry, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



DISCOVERY OF A NATIVE HAWAIIAN RUBBER PRODUCING TREE. 



While on an official exploration trip at Puuwaawaa, North 

 Kona, Hawaii, one of the richest botanical sections in the Terri- 

 tory, the writer found a species of Euphorbia (E. lorifolia) which 

 produced a tremendous flow of latex when bruised or cut. It is 

 a tree of an average height of 20 feet and a trunk of about 10 

 inches in diameter. It is very abundant and scattered over an 

 area of more than 5000 acres. In certain localities the plants 

 are so thick that it is impossible to ride through them. The 

 ground is covered densely with the young seedlings and thous- 

 ands upon thousands of plants cover that area. The writer 

 tapped several trees and sent the secured latex to the Chemist 

 of the Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station at Honolulu. 



Mr. Wm. McGeorge and Mr. W. A. Anderson published a 

 paper or press bulletin* on the result of their investigation, to 

 which the writer would refer any one particularly interested in 

 this discovery. Samples of the crude dry material, rubber, resin, 

 etc., were taken by Mr. Anderson to the Rubber Exposition in 

 New York; one firm offered 70c per pound for the crude mate- 

 rial. The writer has been told by Mr. R. Hind, on whose leased 

 land the trees are found, that he is now shipping one ton of the 

 crude material to a firm in the East, which is, I believe, for ex- 

 perimental purposes. 



COLLECTING OF SEED FOR EXCHANGE PURPOSES. 



While on an exploring trip in Kau and South Kona, Hawaii, 

 during the months of December, 1911, January and February, 

 1912, the writer collected several hundred pounds of seeds of 

 Hawaiian trees, the most noteworthy of which were the follow- 

 ing: 



* Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station, Press Bulletin No. 37, 

 "Euphorbia lorifolia, a Possible Source of Rubber and Chicle," by 

 Wm. McGeorge and W. A. Anderson. 



