374 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1898. 



down the mountain side after a rough tramp over the pedregal, we 

 took a train for the City at Eslava, where a number of plants were 

 found. 



September 1st, (Tuesday). — Left the City of Mexico alone en route 

 for Guadalajara via Irapuato, where a number of days (September 2d 

 to September 5th) were spent. The celebrated barranca was visited 

 in company with an Indian, and a number of plants collected. 



September 5th-September 9, 1896. — This time was profitably spent 

 in a trip to Tampico on the Gulf Coast. 1 En route the beautiful 

 Tamasopo Canon was admired, as also the extensive palm forests 

 about Rascon and eastward. No botanical exploration of the 

 country was made. 



September 10, 1896. — Ciudad Juarez and El Paso were reached on 

 the homeward journey. A hasty botanical survey was made of the 

 hills about El Paso, but little of interest was found in the immediate 

 vicinage of the town, because of the extreme dryness of the season. 



TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOGRAPHY OF THE PLACES VISITED. 



The Valley of Mexico, situated 7,350 feet above the level of the 

 sea, is of an elliptical form with its long axis running in a north 

 and south direction. The greatest length of the valley according to 

 Orozco and Berra is from Cerro de Sincoque on the north to Cerro 

 del Teutli on the southern border of Lake Xochimilcho, a distance 

 of about 45 miles. The greatest breadth of the valley is from the 

 Hacienda de los Morales, westward a distance of 21 miles. This 

 most beautiful of basin-shaped valleys is walled in by high hills and 

 lofty mountains on all sides. Sierra del Ajusco rises in a series of 

 ridges and peaks to the south, the highest point the volcano of 

 Ajusco, long since extinct, lifting its peak 13,612 feet above sea 

 level. In the east, this ridge of mountains sinks, and forms between 

 Amecameca and Ozumba, a broad saddle, over which passes the 

 railroad from the capital to the State of Morelos. The eastern 

 mountainous rim stretches itself as a mighty wall, separating the 

 Valley of Anahuac from Pueblo. It culminates in the southeast in 

 the volcanic peak of Popocatepetl (17,782 feet), and in Iztaccihuatl 

 a long high broken mountain mass, 16.060 feet elevation. Contigu- 

 ous to Iztaccihuatllying to the north, we find the continuous ranges 

 called Cerro Telapon, Cerro Tlaloc, Cerro Tlamacas, Cerro Cha- 



1 See an article by the writer in Bot. Gazette, May, 1S98, p. 362. 



