52 
Alstonia scholaris (getah Pulai) has a wide distri- 
bution, from India, throughout the tropics of the East. 
The rubber is not so easily prepared as that of jelutong but 
considering the abundance of this tree — particularly in Su- 
matra — it will most probably be soon in demand. It is 
fairly common in the Malay Peninsula — a much smaller 
tree than Dyer a costulata but grows from self sown seeds 
almost everywhere. 
Asclepiadaceae, 
Cryptostegia prandiflora is a well known plant 'from 
Madagascar and is grown in nearly all Botanic gardens for 
its handsome flowers. The rubber is reported as being of 
fair grade but the cost of collecting it is prohibitive, as the 
plant is of small dimensions — a bush or low limber. 
Raphionaeme u tills (Encanda rubber) is a recent dis- 
covery from Angola. It differs from all other known rub- 
ber plants, “it is a herbaceous stemless plant with a tuber- 
ous shaped root” a tuber like a small garden turnip with a 
few stemless leaves. As far as is known at the present 
time the rubber is difficult to separate and prepare. Some 
laboratory samples show a very high return of caoutchouc 
but the time and expense eliminating resins and other 
matter is considerable. Nearly all the African tubers im- 
ply a group of plants peculiar to arid regions. The tuber 
contains a viscid fluid or storage of sap enabling the plant 
to survive long periods (2 or 3 years) of drought, and I 
surmise that it is the difficulty of separating the latex from 
the contaminating sap of the tuber which detracts from its 
successful preparation. It is a fascinating plant and fur- 
nishes a high grade rubber, but considering the probable 
expense of preparation, the uncertainty of a mature crop, 
and its desert origin, there is little likelihood of it ever 
reaching the market as plantation rubber. 
Com cos it a k. 
Parthenium argentatum (Gayule rubber) is a recent 
introduction from Mexico and Central America. A low 
herbaceous bush of slow growth but found wild over large 
areas of Central America. Although a low grade rubber 
it has excited considerable interest in the rubber trade as 
a cheap adulterant and substitute of better rubbers — thanks 
to the advance made in the better treatment of all rubbers 
by chemists and manufacturers — and brought into use 
many lines of cheap rubber goods which would not have been 
otherwise saleable, owing to the high cost of raw rubber. 
The rubber is obtained from all parts of the plant, the bush 
