The forest products, whose collection and preparation form regular industries, are rubber (called Gaucho or goma), tonka beans, vanilla, copaiba, chique-chique, sarsaparilla, divi-divi, dye-woods, cabinet-woods and fibres.
The natural and forest products of Mexico include the agave and yucca (ixtle) fibres already mentioned; the " ceibon " fibre derived from the silk-cotton tree (Bombax pentandria); rubber and vanilla in addition to the cultivated products; palm oil; castor beans; ginger; chicle, the gum extracted from the " chico-zapote " tree (Achras sapota); logwood and other dye-woods; mahogany, rosewood, ebony, cedar and other valuable woods; " cascalote " or divi-divi; jalap root (Ipomaea); sarsaparilla (Smilax); nuts and fruits.
Thus the protoand per-salts of iron, as well as the protoand per-salts of tin, including also a large variety of tannin, sumac, divi-divi, chestnut, valonia, the acacias (Areca Catechu and Acacia Catechu from India), from which are obtained cutch and gambier, &c., are no longer used solely as mordants or tinctorial matters, but mainly to serve the object of converting the silk into a greatly-expanded fibre, consisting of a conglomeration of more or less of these substances."
Although the plains are for the most part arid wastes, sugar, aloes, tobacco and divi-divi are produced with much toil in the more fertile glens.
Brazilwood (Caesalpinia echinata), valuable for its timber and colouring extract, and "roco" (Bixa orellana), the "urucn" of Brazil which furnishes the anatto of commerce, are widely distributed in central and southern Colombia, and another species of the first-named genus, the C. coariaria, produces the "divi-divi" of the Colombian export trade - a peculiarly shaped seed-pod, rich in tannic and gallic acids, and used for tanning leather.