Historical Account. 5 



ation of the two species, and because of the belief that this association 

 is in some way necessary to the production of seed. Other species of 

 the genus, some of which are annuals, have also received the name guay- 

 ule, while a plant of the Sonoran Desert (Sonora and southern Arizona), 

 Encelia farinosa, is not only mistaken to-day for guayule but is believed 

 by many to contain rubber. The amount, if present at all, is so insig- 

 nificant that it would certainly not repay consideration from a com- 

 mercial point of view. 



The guayule is known also as "verba de hule" in the region of 

 Pasaje, Durango, and simply as "hule' - in some parts of Zacatecas and 

 of Chihuahua. An alternative spelling " yule " (which occurs incorrectly 

 as "llule" in "guallule") is used in some parts of San Luis Potosi. The 

 name xihuite 1 occurs in northern Zacatecas and "about Saltillo"; 

 copallin and afinador are other less-used designations. But the name 

 "guayule" thus spelled is in the ascendant and will in all probability 

 replace other names. Its derivation, in common with other Mexicanisms, 

 has speculative interest. Seler 2 would refer it to quahu (wood, tree, or 

 forest) and olli (rubber, Sp. hule), evidently believing it to be of Aztec 

 origin. This etymology finds support in the aboriginal term ulequahuitl, 

 said by Sahagun (1529) and Augustin Torquemada (161 5) to be applied 

 to a latex tree (probably Castilloa) producing ulli, a dark resin which 

 becomes very elastic (Jumelie, 1903). By inversion, we have quahu +ule. 

 The suggestion that the derivation is from the Castilian hay (there is) 

 and the Aztec olli, from which we therefore have hayolli, which becomes 

 hayule and so guayule, can not be seriously entertained. 



PRIMITIVE AND LATER USES. 



Contact with the country peon of Mexico reveals a great deal of 

 resourcefulness in the use of many plants. In out of the way places a 

 game is played with a small, very resilient ball, not purchased in the 

 market. It proves on examination to be of very pure rubber, obtained 

 by communal mastication of the bark of the guayule. Altamirano 

 (1906) tells us that country boys obtain rubber in a similar manner also 

 from "tatanini," a name applied, in Queretaro, to Parthenium incanum 

 and to P. lyratum. This custom dates back with fair certainty to the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, having been noted by a Jesuit, one 

 Negrete. 3 



Mr. W. H. Stayton, formerly captain in the U. S. Navy, when on 

 duty in the Gulf of California, observed the Yaqui Indians ashore playing 

 a game with a ball about twice the diameter of a baseball. The game 

 consisted in throwing the ball from hip to hip. It is not unlikely that 

 the ball was made of guayule rubber, which could have been obtained 

 from the country east of the Sierra Madre. or even of rubber from tatanini, 



1 From the Nahuatl xihuitl, weed. This spelling is given by Endlich (loc. cit.). 

 "Jihuite" is given in Zacatecas. "Gihuete" occurs in a legal instrument drawn 

 up at Matamoras, Coahuila, under date of March 9, 1905, in which also "hule" is 

 given as designating guayule. 



2 Endlich, loc. cit. 



3 According to Juan Fritz, fide Endlich, 1906. 



