92 THE WHOLE ART OF RUBBER-GROWING 



CHAPTER IX. 

 Trees that Count Castillo a Elastica. 



THE DESPISED DARIEN CASTILLOA ELASTICA COMPARED 



WITH HEVEA CHARACTER OF LATEX METHOD OF 



TAPPING. 



HPHE Castilloa or Castilla rubber tree is indigenous 

 -^ to Central America, where it is highly prized 

 as a caoutchouc producer, and as a hardy drought- 

 resisting tree that flourishes alike on the plain or at an 

 elevation of 3000 feet above sea level. It derives 

 its name from Castillo, the Spanish botanist who was 

 killed in the forest in 1793 whilst engaged on the 

 Flora of Mexico for the Government. The Castilloa 

 sports a great variety of species. During a recent 

 visit to Ceylon I saw several plantations that were 

 labelled Castilloa, but which I recognised as beinj 

 merely the old Darien Castilloa, the despised Caucho 

 tree of the Isthmus of Panama. I was, therefore, 

 not at all surprised to learn that the Castilloa in 

 Ceylon was not a success, that it was difficult to tap, 

 and that the yield was both small and very uncertain. 

 As a matter of fact the Darien Castilloa was up to 

 quite recently always cut down when it arrived at the 

 tappable age, in order to obtain from it anything 

 like an adequate yield of latex, and for this reason 

 it never entered into favour with cultivators who 

 desired to plant rubber as an investment in tropical 

 agriculture. 



