REMARKABLE MEXICAN TREE. 



317 



though Mexico is in a very warm latitude, 

 yet her lofty mountain plains are in a tem- 

 perature by no means tropical — indeed some 

 of them scarcely at all warmer than many 

 parts of the northern states. We may, 

 therefore, safely hope that many of the in- 

 teresting trees and plants of the mountain- 

 ous districts of Mexico will be, at no very 

 distant day, naturalized in our own gardens. 



One of the most striking trees of Mexico 

 is the Fourcroya, F. longcRva. We give an 

 engraving of it, showing its appearance 

 when in bloom, from the Arboretum Britta- 

 nicum, whence also we gather the follow- 

 ing account of it. 



Fourcroya longmva is found on the sum- 

 mit of Mount Tanga, in the province of 

 Oaxaca, in Mexico, at an elevation of ten 

 thousand feet above the level of the sea. 

 growing in declivities along Avith oaks and 

 arbutuses. It was first discovered, and car- 

 ried to Europe in 1828, by Baron Kar win- 

 ski, and was afterwards introduced into 

 England by M. Francis Rauch in 1833. 



It is a very splendid tree, with a straight 

 cylindrical trunk, forty to fifty feet high, 

 and from twelve to eighteen inches in dia- 

 meter, surmounted by a flower stem from 

 thirty six to forty feet high. It flowers in 

 May, and ripens its fruit in the following 

 winter. 



Baron Karwinski stated, that where he 

 found the Fourcroya, the ground was cover- 

 ed with snow and ice. There is, therefore, 

 little doubt, as Mr. Loudon has remarked, 

 that it Avill prove entirely hardy in the cli- 

 mate of London. 



If the accounts of the natives of Oaxaca, 

 are to be relied upon, this tree bids fair to 

 distance the well known Century Plant, 

 Agave aniericana, in reputation for tardiness 

 in blooming. " It is of such remarkably 



Fig. 76. 7^« Mexican Fourcroya^ 



