428 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1910. 



fers in his great v, ork. Here were collected trees, shrubs, and herba- 

 ceous plants, nativ3 and exotic, some selected for their beauty, some for 

 their fragrance, and others for their medicinal virtues. They were 

 systematically arranged in a manner which displayed both artistic 

 taste and horticultural knowledge ; and it is safe to say that it would 



not have been easy to find 

 their equal in that day in 

 any countr}^ of Europe or 

 Asia. 



There has come down 

 to us an account of the 

 methods by which this 

 remarkable garden was 

 stocked with some of its 

 most precious plants. 



Tlacaelel, the brother 

 of Motecuhzoma Ilhuica- 

 mina, the chronicle states, 

 conceived the idea of col- 

 lecting the waters of 

 Huaxtepec, in the moun- 

 tains south of the valley, 

 into a great reservoir 

 from which they could be 

 distributed and governed. 

 This work was under- 

 taken and, at his sugges- 

 tion, a garden was laid out. 

 Messengers were then sent 

 to various parts of trop- 

 ical America for plants to 

 stock it. From Pinotl, 

 viceroy of Cuetlaxtlan, 

 the Emperor requested, 

 among other rare and 

 beautiful plants, the yolo- 

 xochitl^ or "heart-flower" {Talauma mexicana) , a single blossom of 

 which was sufficient to fill a whole house with fragrance; the 

 cacaloxocMtl, or " crow-flower " {Phimeria imbra) , used by maidens 

 for decorating their hair; the isquixochitl {Bourreiia huanita)^ with 

 clusters of fragrant salver-shaped flowers; and the xoi'hinacaztli^ or 

 " ear-flower," the botanical identity of which has long remained a 

 mystery. 



The first account of this flower was written about 1569 by Padre 

 Bernardino de Sahagun, who refers to it as teunacastli, " the sacred 



Fig. 1. — XochinacaztJi, seu Flos auriculw, illustration 

 of Hernandez (1576). 



