135 



FUNGI FROM PENANG; FROM Mr. FOX, 6—1—10. 



Nos. 4, 5, 7 and 9- Polystictus occidentdlis. Fries. 

 No, 6. Polystictus floridanus, Berk. 

 No. 8. Schizophyllum commune, Fries. 



Polystictus occidentalis is the only parasitic species, and but little is 

 known respectin<^ its life-history, but judging from analogy its 

 diffusion can be affected by wind borne spores or by underground 

 mycelium spreading from one tree to another. As the trees are so 

 large and presumably old, the question arises as to whether they have 

 hot passed their prime, and are becoming too weak to supply the 

 required amount of water and food to the branches. If a trench 

 .could be formed around the base of the trunk, and flooded with a 

 solution of nitrate of potash or nitrate of soda (preferably the first 

 named), using one pound to three gallons of water, say once a week, 

 for two months, the end would be somewhat" delayed, but no cure 

 is known. 



(Signed) G. Massek. 



i8— I— 10. 



RUBBER AND ITS SUBSTITUTES. 



The circular which was issued recently by the Synthetic Rubber 

 Co. announcing the proposed voluntary winding-up, on the grounds 

 that furthtrr expenditure was not justified, has given great satisfaction 

 to dealers and brokers in rubber, although it may be said that in 

 Mincing Lane the synthetic bogey never caused much apprehension, 

 even though Professor Dunstan, at the British Association Meeting 

 in; .1906, confidently predicted the synthetic production of rubber 

 before the Association met again at York. At present there is still 

 no likelihood of the prophecy coming true, but the commercial pro- 

 duction is by no means an impossibility. It is interesting from this 

 point of view to give a resume of the many attempts, especially 

 during the last decade, to make artificial rubber or prepare satisfact- 

 ory substitutes for it. The only known actual synthesis of caout- 

 chouc is that accomplished by Bouchardet and Tilden by polymeri- 

 sing isoprene (CH : (CH2). (CH2) CH), which is itself one of the 

 distillation-products of caoutchouc. Wallach and Tilden (1892) also 

 showed that isoprene obtained from turpentine behaves similarly to 

 that obtained in the destructive distillation of rubber. Kondakow, 

 in 1902, prepared a substance closely resembling caoutchouc, by the 

 action of light for a year on di-iso-propenyl or methyl isoprene. A 

 British patent granted in 1907 proposes to convert acetelene and 

 ethylene into di-vinyl under the influence of a dull red heat, which 

 latter product yields methyl di-vinyl or isoprene on treatment with 

 methyl chloride. The isoprene is then to be condensed to rubber. 

 Other processes have been patented on the assumption that coal tar 

 contains polymers of isoprene or compounds convertible into such 

 . substances. Thus Seguin and Boussy de Sales patented in France 

 during 1903, a process according to which tar (containing isomers of 



