348 
GUATEMALA. 
The castilloa grows to a height of about forty to fifty 
feet, and its clean, smooth stern may be two feet in diam¬ 
eter at the base. The leaves are large, oblong in shape, and 
rather hairy. The foliage is light green in color, and not 
very dense. The small greenish flowers appear in Feb¬ 
ruary and March, and the seed ripens three months later. 
Mr. Morris 1 gives the following account of the rubber 
gathering: —- 
“ The castilloa rubber-tree is fit to be tapped for caout¬ 
chouc, or the gummy substance produced by its milk, 
when about seven to ten years old. The milk is obtained 
at present, from trees growing wild, by men called rubber- 
gatherers, who are well acquainted with all the localities 
inhabited by the Toonu [ule]. The proper season for 
tapping the trees is after the autumn rains, which occur 
some months after the trees have ripened their fruit, and 
before they put forth buds for the next season. The flow 
of milk is most copious during the months of October, 
November, December, and January. The rubber-gatherers 
commence operations on an untapped tree by reaching 
with a ladder, or by means of lianes, the upper portions 
of its trunk, and scoring the bark the whole length with, 
deep cuts, which extend all round. The cuts are some¬ 
times made so as to form a series of spirals all round the 
tree ; at other times they are shaped simply like the letter 
Y, with a small piece of hoop-iron, the blade of a cutlass, 
or the leaf of a palm placed at the lower angle to form a 
spout to lead the milk into a receptacle below. A number 
of trees are treated in this manner, and left to bleed for 
several hours. At the close of the day the rubber-gath¬ 
erer collects all the milk, washes it by means of water, 
1 The Colony of British Honduras. D. Morris, London, 1883, p. 76. 
