764 FINAL JOURNEYS AND WORK. [1885, 



4,028 feet and a warmer damp air. "Well, we tried 

 it yesterday ; had to leave city of Mexico at 6.15 A. M., 

 our hotel at 5.30 cold, no breakfast ; had to travel till 

 ten or nearly before we could get even a decent cup of 

 coffee, at junction of road to Vera Cruz and Puebla, 

 and after rising to 8,333 feet in getting out of the 

 Valley of Mexico ; but at 1 P. M., at Esperanza, in the 

 Tierra Frias, had a capital dinner, and met train 

 from Vera Cruz. Here pine-trees on the hills all 

 round us, two species. Soon begins the descent and 

 a complete change of air, the other side all dry and 

 horrid dust, making our catarrh worse than ever ; 

 now the moisture from the Gulf of Mexico makes all 

 green ; the road by skillful engineering pitches down 

 4,000 feet to this, the greater part of the descent all in 

 eight or nine miles of straight line as the bird flies. 

 In all the Valley of Mexico and to the north of it 

 really nothing in blossom yet, all so dry, except Sene- 

 cio salignus, if I rightly remember the name, a shrub 

 of 1-4 feet, just becoming golden with blossoms. 

 But the moment we began the descent all was flow- 

 ery, two species of Baccharis, Eupatoria, Erigeron 

 mucranatum (so much cultivated under the false 

 name of Vittadenia triloba), Loeselia3 species, Arbutus, 

 (Xalapensis) in bud, and many things of which we 

 shall know more when we return over the route. . . . 

 Very comfortable hotel here, Botteri l left an eleve 

 here who knows something of botany, but lives out of 

 reach on a hacienda. We found a garden combined 

 with a small coffee plantation. The proprietor thereof, 

 speaking a little French, has filled his ground with a 



1 Matteo Botteri, died in 1885. Sent to Mexico by London Horticul- 

 tural Society. Made fine collections, especially about Orizaba, where 

 he settled. 



