255 



of the two regions, though these have not been detected. But that 

 there is a climatic element even on the west coast is made plain 

 by the fact that as the coastal plain is left behind and the slopes 

 increase in altitude and humidity, the production of rubber 

 gradually declines. At an altitude of about i,8oo feet on the 

 Esmeralda coffee estate, only a few miles from La Zacualpa, 

 wild Castilloa trees apparently normal in other respects yielded 

 milk very sparingly, while at an elevation of 2,500 feet no milk 

 dropped from the cuts. Castilloa trees grew vigorously and 

 attained a diameter of 15 inches in twelve years at "Quien Sabe," 

 in the coffee district above Tapachula. The trees grow naturally 

 up to 1,500 feet and beyond. Above 1,000 feet the rubber gatherers 

 do not e.xpect to find much rubber. Trees planted at an altitude 

 of 2,000 feet from seed brought from the coast do not yield 

 rubber. 



Castilloa on the Isthmus of Panama. — The idea that the Castilloa 

 sent from the Isthmus of Panama to British India came from a 

 continuously humid district seems not to be justified by the state- 

 ments of Mr. Cross, who secured seeds and cuttings in the vicinity 

 of Colon. He says : 



" The interior of the Darien forests would frighten most people. 

 The undergowth is composed of boundless thickets of a prickly 

 leaved species of BromcUa often 8 to 10 feet high, the ground 

 swarms with millions of ants, and the snakes raise themselves to 

 strike at any one who approaches. The Caucho tree grows not in 

 inundated lands or marshes, but in moist, undulating, or flat situa- 

 tions, often by the banks of streamlets and on hillsides and 

 summits where is any loose stones and a little soil. It is adapted 

 for the hottest parts of India, where the temperature does not fall 

 much below 74' F. The tree is of rapid growth, and attains to a 

 great size, and I am convinced that, when cultivated in India, it 

 will answer the most sanguine expectations that may have been 

 formed concerning it. I have been up the Chagres and Galun 

 rivers. I came out on the railway about 7 miles from Colon. I 

 go back to the same place (the village of Gatun), from which place 

 by the river the India-rubber forests are reached." — (Trans. Linn. 

 Soc, London 2d. ser. 2: 213.) 



BEST DISTRICTS IN JAMAICA. 

 Where cocoa grows there also will Castilloa thrive. In Portland 

 a tree growing in dry limestone was, at 5 years of age, 18 feet in 

 height of clean stem before branching, and 15 to 18 inches in 

 diameter. 



PROPAGATION. 

 The propagation of this rubber tree is most easily effected by 

 ■seed, but the seeds must be sown as soon as they are ripe as they 

 very quickly lose their vitality. Cuttings can also be made. 



SHADE FOR CASTILLOA. 

 "In good soil and in moist situations no shade at all is required 

 for the young tree, but otherwise it does want a certain amount of 



