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called by its true name. The right name of the Central American 

 rubber tree is Castilla. It was first described and named by the 

 botanist Cervantes in 1794, and the description was printed the 

 same year in " Supplemento a la Gaceta de Literatura." It is here 

 written Castilla, and the tree was named thus in honour of the 

 Spanish botanist Castillo, who had died the previous year, while 

 he was working on a flora of Mexico. In 1805 an English 

 translation of the paper was published anonymously, and now the 

 name was changed to Castdloa. The translator (who is believed 

 to have been CHARLES KOENIG, the keeper of the mineralogical 

 department of the British Museum) had no right to alter the name. 

 A Mexican botanist had already, with just as little right, proposed 

 to change the name to Castella, shortly after the plant had been 

 described. Now we have in systematic botany certain recognized 

 rules of nomenclature, and one of these is that of priority. As 

 Castilla was the first name given, it should remain so. This 

 question was discussed and settled in 1903 by O. F. COOK, in 

 " The Culture of the Central American Rubber Tree" or Bulletin 

 No. 49, Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Department of 

 Agriculture, but it seems to have been overlooked. 



DIFFERENT FORMS OF CASTILLA. 



Another question which is causing considerable misconception 

 as regards our Central American rubber tree is that of species. 

 Castilla elastica Cerv. in a very wide species, containing numerous 

 forms. A species-making botanist could easily divide it into a 

 dozen species or more. I have personally observed nine fairly 

 distinct forms, but I still hesitate to recognize them as good 

 varieties. KOSCHNY, a Costa Rican planter, who has written 

 considerably in " Der Tropenpflanzer" about Castilla in certain 

 parts of Central America, speaks of several " species," but does not 

 give satisfactory descriptions that would warrant his forms to 

 receive the distinctions of species. COOK described the form 

 occurring on and near La Zacualpa rubber plantation in Soconusco, 

 Mexico, as a new species, C. laetiflua. In Hawaii I saw a form 

 planted from seeds obtained from a seed merchant in Paris under 

 the name var. nicaraguensis. It certainly was different from any 

 other form I have seen elsewhere. C. markhamiana is generally 

 considered to be a separate species, and the Castilla grown in 

 Ceylon is sometimes referred to as this species. Certain is it that 

 the Ceylon Castilla is not identical with any Mexican Castilla that 

 has come under my notice. 



From the planter's point of view it is of little significance 

 whether one or more species are cultivated so long as the rubber 

 is obtained. But it is in this fact of the existence of many different 

 forms in which we have to find an explanation of the reputed 

 failure of Castilla in different places, where its success had been 

 presupposed. 



If we plant seeds of the Castilla of the Atlantic side of 

 Southern Mexico, with an almost continuous rainfall, on the Pacific 

 slope of the Sierra Madre, where we have a distinct dry season 



