p. MONTEZUMA 33 



plant life from these regions, or overflow into them 

 of any surplus human kind, bitten with the self- 

 preservation creed, that though their shirts may be 

 near, their skin is still nearer. 



The first of these is that Mexico still is, and for 

 a long time has been, what the President of the 

 U.S. America describes as preoccupied in " settling 

 up her domestic affairs," and this state of affairs 

 spells a very disturbing process, both to man and 

 beast. The second is that a condition of perpetual 

 Civil War and the more peaceful mission of the 

 collecting botanist do not go wtII together ; and, 

 thirdly, that those trees that have been brought back 

 from those regions are, for the most part, very 

 touchy about the climatic conditions they find 

 themselves invited to face. Like Israel's scattered 

 race, in the words of Byron, 



They cannot quit their place of birth. 

 They cannot Uve in other earth. 



And this, in many cases, seems to sound the keynote 

 of their swan song, and to express the refrain of their 

 failure. 



The P. Montezuma. — Of those that have flourished 

 in favoured localities, perhaps the P. Montezuma 

 and its three-leaved, in other aspects outward counter- 

 part and fellow countryman the P. Patula (w^hich, 

 b}^ the wa}', belongs to the Tsedse group), with their 

 long, pendulous, mane-like leaves, would be voted 

 by any plebiscite of approved scenery seekers the 

 most attractive among all existent Pines. Can we 

 sound their praises higher ? 



P. Pseudo-Strobus. — ^This Pine is so near, so very 

 near, in so many of its similarities to the P. Montezuma, 

 that we wonder, in our uninstructed innocence, why 



