Castilla elastica Castilla elastica Castilla elastica, the Panama rubber tree, is a tree native to the tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. It was the principal source of latex among the Mesoamerican peoples in pre-Columbian times. The latex gathered from "Castilla elastica" was converted into usable rubber by mixing the latex with the juice of the morning glory species "Ipomoea alba" which, conveniently, is typically found in the wild as a vine climbing "Castilla elastica". The rubber produced by this method found several uses, including most notably, the manufacture of balls for the Mesoamerican ballgame "ōllamaliztli". The Aztec
The Book of the New Sun a boat: Two examples of the arcane words Wolfe uses are "Ascian" and "Hydrargyrum". Ascian, despite its similarity to the word "Asian" is derived from a Latin word meaning "without shadow", as the Ascians are tropic dwellers who have no shadow at noon. Hydrargyrum, the fluid contained in Severian's sword Terminus Est, is derived from the Latin "hydr", meaning water, and "arguers", meaning silver, as hydrargyrum is liquid mercury. The Ascian language further expounds on the idea that word choice alters the thinking of people, as the Ascian language is simply a set of quotations from government propaganda called "Correct