VEGETABLE PKODUCTIONS. 
191 
matter is extracted from a variety of the vanilla growing 
throughout all the forests. Among the trees useful for the 
purposes of tanning, is the " guayabo" (psidium pyriferum), 
the "mangle-bianco" (avicennia nitida),the "guamuchi," and a 
vine called the " bejuco-amarillo." 
In a commercial point of view, the vegetable gums and balsams 
are items of important consideration. In the central and south- 
ern districts, the abundance of the myrosperum perv/iferum, 
yielding the balsam of Peru, and a bark which serves in treat- 
ment as a substitute for quinine, is astonishing. ~Not less 
worthy of note is the styrax officinale of Linnseus, the product 
of which is known as the liquid-amber gum. On the Atlantic 
plains the "palo-baria" supplies a valuable substitute for glue, 
and the numerous varieties of acacia furnish gum-arabic in the 
greatest profusion. The " cuapinol" (catharto carpus) is distin- 
guished for the odorous gum which it distils. It is extensively 
used in the churches as incense, and the natives ascribe to it 
medicinal properties of the most miraculous character. 
The Sapindus Saponaria grows throughout all the southern 
division, and forms an excellent substitute for soap ; while the 
fibres of the plant (called by the Zapotecos Jjequipe-hendi) serve, 
from their intoxicating influence, a useful purpose in catching 
fish. The varieties of climbing-plants, especially those called 
" bejucos de agua," which encumber the foliage of the forests, 
are innumerable. They often serve, by the abundance of sweet 
cool water which they contain, to refresh, even more than the 
gushing streams that furrow the Isthmus, the Indian as he pants 
in the noon-day heat. The singular character of these plants 
seems sufficient to warrant a momentary trespass upon these 
pages, in order to describe one or two of the more important va- 
rieties. The " mondongo" or c; tacalate-jaba" grows in all parts 
of the Isthmus, both upon low and high ground ; it reaches a 
large size, sometimes more than a foot in diameter, and winds 
itself around trees in a grotesque manner like a huge serpent. 
This variety has a small leaf, and bears a bright-red flower in 
clusters with a single stamen. Another kind, " tachicon" (smaller 
than the preceding), grows nearly erect, is hard and durable, and 
bears a small white flower of delicious fragrance. A third kind, 
