THE TROPICAL ZONE. 199 



in great quantities from Mexico. These Cactuses, which 

 are fond of a barren dry soil, are also cultivated as supply- 

 ing an abundance of firewood, and for the sake of their 

 refreshing fruit, which is very much like a gooseberry, " not 

 only in appearance, but in flavour, texture, and quality." 



Having so recently seen something of the character of a 

 tropical forest in the Sandwich Islands, we need not repeat 

 the experiment in Mexico, except that we will venture into 

 one again just so far as to make acquaintance with a curious 

 tree, called the Hand-plant (Cheirostemon platanoides) , 

 peculiar to the Mexican forests, which has a large handsome 

 flower about the size and shape of a tulip. This flower has 

 no corolla, but the calyx, which is a large leathery cup, as- 

 sumes the appearance of one; the filaments are united in 

 a tube, and the five large bright scarlet anthers (from the 

 peculiar character of which the Hand-plant has acquired its 

 name) hang out of the flower, looking like fingers with claws 

 at the end, in the midst of which grows the curved style. 

 It is with a feeling of pleasure that, as we look round us in 

 these Mexican forests, we recognize an old acquaintance in 

 the dark purple bells of the Cob&a, which we have often cul- 

 tivated with care in our English garden, though we never 

 thought it half so beautiful as it looks here, clinging and 



