14 REPORT ON THE CAOUTCHOUC OP COMMERCE. 
mala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica), 
Isthmus of Panama, West Coast of America down to 
Guayaquil, and the slopes of the Chimborazo. They 
have also been found in Cuba and Hayti. 
Vernacular Names. — Arbol del Hie (Mexico), 
TJU (of the Creoles). 
Hle-HU* 
Ulequalmitl (Aztec TJle-tree, Huitl- 
tree). 
Jebe f (Ecuador, written Jeve orHeve). 
Hide (Nicaragua, amongst Civil In- 
dians and Creoles). 
TJli (Carib Indians). 
Tassa (Mosquito Indians). 
Climatic Conditions. 
The species of Castilloa seem to like best and thrive in thick, 
humid, warm forests. They abound in Nicaragua ; and as I have, 
through the kindness of my friend Hr. Bureau, of Paris, received 
from M. Paul Levy, a botanical collector in Nicaragua, a good 
account of their history there, it will serve to give a correct idea of 
their habits. 
The basin of the Rio San Juan is where the XJ16 tree grows to 
perfection. This river is the natural vent of the two vast basins 
of the lakes of Nicaragua and Managua, receiving numerous 
tributaries, which have all their sources in the innumerable tracts 
hitherto virgin and unfrequented, and where the trees abound. 
The ground is very fertile. The district is very unhealthy— it 
rains for eight or nine months in the year — and the climate very 
warm and humid. Castillo is the entrepot where the huleros (as 
the Caoutchouc collectors are called) start from, having first 
ascertained at this old fort the best districts. These huleros are 
nearly all natives of Grenada, or of the Hepartment of the Rivas. 
The trees prefer humid and warm soils, but not marshy, clayey, or 
gravelly ground, and the presence of these trees is looked upon as 
* The duplication of a vernacular name gives intensity to its meaning, and is nearly 
always done in the case of medicinal plants. The milk of the Ule is an effectual 
remedy in diarrlioeal complaints ; indeed, if a sufficient quantity were taken it would 
« glue up ” the viscera. 
-f* The same name is also applied to the Siphocampylos Jamcsonianis , D.C., a small 
lobeliaceous herb yielding Caoutchouc (Spruce). 
