GARDENS OF ANCIENT MEXICO NUTTALL 463 



width, have not only been staked oil with the thick native cane but 

 have been surrounded by rows of a species of willow the growth of 

 which resembles that of a Lombardy poplar. These willows, being 

 constantly pruned, give little or no shade, and their root growth is 

 phenomenal. With a certain amount of training their interlacing 

 roots form a sort of basket work which retains the banks of the 

 " chinampas," the age of which can be estimated by their height, 

 which varies between 2 and 8 feet. 



Since the water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) has been intro- 

 duced in comparatively recent times, it has been found very useful 

 in building up the chinampas, being spread in thick layers which 

 are allowed to partly dry and partly decay and are then covered 

 with layers of mud. Every year the process of raising the surface 

 of the bed is repeated in order to counteract the erosion produced 

 by the torrential rains in the wet season. By means of a canvas 

 scoop fastened to the crossed end of a pole mud is dredged and cast 

 upon the beds from the bottom of the innumerable small canals which 

 lie between the " chinampas " and have also to be kept in a navigable 

 condition. The same scoops are used by the Indians standing in 

 their punts to cast water in the high, narrow " chinampas " when 

 irrigation is required. The low " chinampas " need no irrigation, but 

 in the wet season run the risk of inundation. 



For countless centuries the inhabitants of the capital have been 

 almost entirely supplied with vegetables, maize, and flowers by the 

 industrious " chinampa " gardeners, who manage generally to raise 

 in a year several different successive crops on their artificial plots 

 of land. 2 



The foregoing data will suffice to establish that it is erroneous to 

 refer to chinampas as " floating gardens." 



Ancient Mexican history furnishes, however, instances of true 

 " floating gardens " having actually been made and conveyed from 

 one place to another. The old native accounts of these repeated by 

 Spanish and other historians gave rise to the mistaken idea that it 

 was and is customary for the Mexicans to make and cultivate crops 

 on movable rafts; a method which the shallowness of the water 

 would render impracticable, all water traffic in the canals being 

 carried on by means of punts and small dugout canoes. 



In the native chronicles several versions are given of how, during 

 a period corresponding to A. D. 1350-1400, the King of Atzcapot- 

 zalco and his confederates permitted the newly arrived Nahuas, or 

 Mexicans, to establish themselves in the lagoon and to make and 



2 An important item of sale is that of young plants of annuals which are raised in a 

 peculiar way. Inside of a raised rim, on a substratum of decayed vegetation, a layer of 

 liquid mud, between 6 and 7 inches deep, is poured and allowed to dry partially. Seed- 

 lings are transplanted and set out at equal distances in this bed. When well rooted and 

 grown the bed is well watered and divided into equal squares by cutting lines in the mud 

 with a knife. When half dry each square, with its single plant, whose roots are securely 

 encased in the mud, is lifted out, the compact neat block being easily handled and packed 

 and buried in the garden beds, where the plants flourish rapidly. 



