Heilprin.J 14U |Nov. 6, 



plum or siruela (Spondias) was also bearing heavily, but it still boie traces 

 of flowering. One of the most ornamental trees of the roadside is the 

 "southern pine" or Casuarina, which also thrives extensively in the open 

 and windy sand spots of Progreso. 



The tree which at the time of our visit gave the tone of luxuriance to the 

 vegetation was the ramon (Brossimum alicastrum), the dense masses of 

 whose foliage are a refreshing object in the street scenery of almost every 

 town in northern Yucatan. It is extensively cultivated for horse and 

 mule fodder, and thus frequently appears for cause stripped of its leaves 

 for a height of thirty to forty feet. It then shows to advantage the brilliant 

 contrast between its pile gray, almost white, trunk and the dark green of 

 its crown. Plants with showy flowers were not numerous, and the flowers 

 where occurring were not specially remarkable either for beauty or for 

 fragrance. There were, however, one or two notable exceptions, which 

 went far to redeem the reputation of the tropics. One of these was the tree 

 known in the Maya language as xlcuiclie, which comprises the two species 

 familiar to botanists as Pachira alba and P. fastuosa. Both forms were 

 completely naked, except for the large tufts of red and white blossoms 

 which were scattered over the branches. The tree is a favorite with the 

 natives, and we met with it at numerous places along the open roadside ; 

 but its true home is the village garden. Scarcely less attractive in its dis- 

 play of flowers is the siricote {Cordia Sebestana), with its large and bril- 

 liant cups of scarlet, the abiding place of several species of humming-bird. 



The picture of Merida and its surroundings, so far as the vegetation is 

 concerned, is also the picture of much of the outlying region where settle- 

 ments have effected a lodgment. The approach to every village is heralded 

 by a growth of sabal or cocoanut, the former of which attains the dimen- 

 sions approximately of the Florida palmetto, rising in graceful shafts sixty 

 to eighty feet in height. Its most picturesque garb is seen when the tree is 

 enclosed by the trunk and cable masses of the copo (Ficus rubiginosa) , 

 whose close embrace makes it appear as though the same trunk and roots 

 were nourishing and supporting the lives of two very distinct organisms. 

 The fig, of later growth, had wrapped its massive descending roots about 

 the shaft of the palm, and in such a manner as to leave little or nothing 

 of its fellow visible except the tufts of leaves. Manifestly the pseudo-para- 

 site had started life from above, possibly from seeds deposited by a bird, 

 gathering sustenance from the atmosphere and its contained impurities. I 

 could find neither here nor in Mexico proper, where 1 subsequently had 

 frequent opportunity of observing this growth, evidence of strangulation 

 of the host. Inasmuch as the trunk of the palmetto does not materially 

 increase in bulk after it first rises from the ground, I doubt much if this 

 closing around causes any real injury to the plant attacked, contrary to 

 the general belief of the natives. The finest specimens of the cocoa-palm 

 were met with by us at a locality on the north coast known as the Serrito, 

 a few miles to the east of the Puerto de Qilam. The tree does not in this 

 place grow to any great height, perhaps forty to fifty feet, but it appears 



