43- pittier: origin of chicle 



L., whereas it is a fact that the larger portion of the cacao beans 

 seen in the world market proceeds from another species, Theo- 

 hroma leiocarpa, described fully fifty years ago by the Swiss 

 botanist Bemouilli.^ 



The general idea is also that the Central-American rubber 

 originates from a single species, Castilla elastica. In reality, as 

 far back as 1903,^ O. F. Cook called attention to the existence of 

 several distinct rubber-producing species of Castilla, of which he 

 pubhshed no less than four in 1905.^ In 19 10, the writer took 

 up the same subject and completed to a certain extent Cook's 

 work, with the addition of a few more species.^ Among other 

 things, he showed that Castilla elastica is a species with a very 

 limited area in the states of Vera Cruz, Tamaulipas, and Michoa- 

 can, Central Mexico, and that most of the seeds used in build- 

 ing up the plantations of Ceylon and other countries in the East 

 and West Indies and South America, proceeded from the several 

 species scattered over Central America. Nevertheless, the notion 

 is generally maintained that Castilla rubber is the exclusive 

 product of Castilla elastica. Even the distorted name Castilloa, 

 with the addition of a superfluous vowel, passes stereotypically 

 from old publications to those of more recent date. 



So far, the origin of another Tropical American product, the 

 chicle, has not been questioned. It was admitted everywhere 

 that Achras Zapota h-, an important fruit tree known as sapodilla 

 or naseberry in English, and in Spanish as zapotillo, chicozapote, 

 and nispero, was also the only producer of this substance, which 

 is the base of the American chewing gum and is also applied to 

 several other uses. On the authority of travellers like Morelet 

 and of other authors, I myself recorded that species as "abundant 

 in the lowlands of Tabasco and Chiapas and the western part 

 of Yucatan" (see footnote 4) as well as in Jamaica and parts 

 of Venezuela, without ever suspecting that I was contributing 

 to the further spreading of a fallacy. 



1 In Denkschr. Schweiz. Naturforsch. Ges. 29: 1-15, pi. 1-7. 1869. 



2 The culture of the Central- American rubber tree, U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. PI. Ind., 

 Bull. 49. 



5 Science, n. ser. 18: 438. 1903- 



^ Contr. U. S. Natl. Herb. 13: 247-279, pis. 22-43, figs. 45-54- 1910. 



