VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL PRODUCTIONS. 
347 
desirable tree, few have been formed. Now, as formerly, 
the Indios collect the gum in a very wasteful way, and soon 
the supply will be greatly lessened. I am tempted to 
quote from Juarros 1 what I believe is the earliest notice 
of the use of India-rubber for waterproof garments. “ On 
pricking the trunk of this tree [ule] an abundant juice 
issues, which serves, as Fuentes assures us, to coat a boot, 
with which one can pass a stream or a swamp dry shod.” 
1 Compendio de la Historia de la Ciudad de Guatemala, t. 2, p. 95, ed. 
1818. 
