1891.] *-^*- [Heilprln. 



in fall vigor, and many of the trees of the large grove, which is here 

 bathed by the ocean breezes, were laden with fruits. Compared witli the 

 cocoa-palms which I subsequently met with in the Mexican region west 

 and northwest of Vera Cruz, these appeared to be of a much more healthy 

 type, and altogether their general aspect was much fresher. In the same 

 region is also found the dwarf cocoauut {Cocos coyol). 



In the mountain region forty to sixty miles south of Merida, or beyond 

 Ticul, certain new elements are introduced into the vegetation, which 

 impart to it a somewhat distinctive character ; but, broadly speaking, the 

 flora is still that of the northern limestone flats, with its acacias as the 

 dominating feature. At several points on the northern flank of the Sierra, 

 as between the hacienda of San Juan and Uxmal, and again between 

 Ticul and the hacienda of Tabi, there are extensive growths of the red 

 gum, the chakah of the Mayas {Bnrsera gummifera), the tree which yields 

 much of the chewing gum of commerce. Like most of the larger for- 

 esters it was destitute of leaves, and in its peculiarly dichotomizing 

 branches and copper-colored trunk, it could not fail to attract the attention 

 of the traveler. The tree grows to a height of some forty to sixty feet, and 

 in such close association as to form woods of its own. I met with it in con- 

 siderable abundance along the line connecting Vera Cruz and Jalapa, not 

 far from the village of San Juan. Along the roadways and in the thinner 

 jungle the lesser pineapple or pinuela (Bromelia pinguin) was very abun- 

 dant, its long and rigid saw-like leaves, tipped with bright crimson, form- 

 ing an effective foreground to the more delicate types of vegetation 

 beyond. Especially beautiful is the effect produced by these plants at the 

 approaches to the famous ruins of Uxmal ; great tufted masses, five to 

 seven feet in height, line the roadway on either side — a natural stockade 

 alike impassable to man and beast. 



Only along a comparatively short stretch of roadway between Tzamal 

 and Tunkas, on the Camino Real to Valladolid, did Ave meet with that 

 phase of vegetable development which the mind popularly associates with 

 a southern flora — a flora which is tropically luxuriant, and where luxuri- 

 ance is dependent not upon the special growth of plants of a single order, 

 but upon an assortment of largely heterogeneous elements. The begin- 

 nings of such a vegetation w r e found a few miles to the southeast of Sitil- 

 pech. The limestone has here undergone deep decay, liberating a rich 

 deposit of red earth, which has attracted a profuse and varied flora. The 

 trees are very much larger than we had heretofore seen in the bush and 

 some of them almost noble in their proportions. Manifestly they are the 

 remains of a forest which was at one time far more majestic than it is 

 to-day, and which dates its primal destruction probably to the period of 

 the early colonization of the country by the Spaniards. The overarching 

 boughs, decked with a profusion of dog-jessamine ( Taberncemontana amyg- 

 dalifolia), orchids and air plants, especially the litter, help to form a 

 dainty bit of road scenery which it would be difficult to match. Of the 

 orchids, the Gattleya was especially abundant, forming by its large 

 bunches great unsightly scars in the axils of the forest trees. We col- 



