1891.] [Heilprin. 



ous associated Acacias. These may be taken to represent the white blos- 

 soms of our cherry and dogwood. Here and there the eye catches a glimpse 

 of a solitary screw-pine, the^ipil* of the Mayas (Pandanus candelabrum), a 

 plant which seems to have pretty firmly engrafted itself upon the Yucatan, 

 flora. 



Withal that is lacking to indicite a tropical flora there is equally little 

 that is really distinctive of the northern woods ; there are no oaks, maples, 

 beeches, poplars, junipers, cedars or pines. Excepting the Acacias we failed 

 to detect a single genus of northern forest trees. f Yet the total impression 

 produced by the vegetation was one immediately suggestive of the north, 

 and not of a flora intermediate in character between that of the north and 

 that of the south. The largely denuded condition of the trees undoubt- 

 edly conduced towards this impression. 



This is the picture of the limestone flats between Progreso and Merida, 

 and of much of the region lying to the east, south and west of the capital 

 city; it is the picture as we found it in the dry season, in the month of 

 March, before nature had yet *begun to respond to those refreshing 

 influences which are the offering of the rainy season.:}: It was the tropical 

 winter. But even at this season of the year there were pieces of landscape 

 that were fragrant in their verdure. Wherever the hand of man had 

 transformed the native scrub into the fertile, but ever dreary and monot- 

 onous, hennequen country, with it countless aloes (-Agave riyida? var. 

 A. Sisalana) planted in avenues of geometrical precision, the eye is sure 

 to rest upon a number of scattered garden spots. They are the groves of 

 the haciendas, and it is difficult to conceive of anything more brilliant or 

 refreshing than these oases in what might be termed a fertile desert. The 

 dense masses of foliage of the orange, ramon (Brossimum alicastrum), and 

 one or more species of Ficus (F. longifoUa), with their deepest tints of 

 green, and the overarching plumes of the cocoanut, offer a sharp contrast 

 to the bleak expanse of hennequen, and a picture of loveliness not soon 

 to be forgotten. 



Along the roadways and in the gardens of Merida numerous examples 

 of the true arboreal vegetation of the tropics are to be met with. Con- 

 spicuous among these are the silk-cotton tree (Bombax ceibn) and the 

 bonete or kamche (Jacaratia Mexicana}, both of which assume the stately 

 proportions of forest trees. At the time of our visit they were already in 

 full fruit, although they as yet showed scarcely a vestige of leaf. This 

 peculiarity, so novel to the stranger, was also true of most of the larger 

 trees, such as the sapote (Sapota achras), pochote (Eriodendron anfractu- 

 osum), the so-called native cedar or cedro (Cedrela odorata}, etc. The 



* The Maya 0, or reversed C, is pronounced as a short lingual tz. 



fSo many of the bushes and trees being destitute of leaf, and therefore large! y unrec- 

 ognizable, it is possible that more of the temperate forms are actually represented than 

 appeared to us to be the case. 



I Returning to Progreso in the early part of June, I found that the vegetation, although 

 considerably advanced, was still backward as compared with that of the eastern low- 

 land plains of major Mexico, and in every way much less luxuriant. 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXIX. 136. S. PRINTED DEC. 28, 1891. 



