fflowers, 63 



it is once planted. The cocoa-nut prefers the sea-coast and high tem- 

 perature. The saline breezes from the sea are very beneficial to it. 

 I have not seen in Mexico the species of palm bearing the date, 

 perhaps because it has not been planted there ; but I am sure that we 

 could raise it, as we have several sections with a climate similar to 

 that of Egypt and Asia Minor, where the date palm grows so well. 



Mangos. The mango is a very fine fruit, but requires a cultivated 

 taste, and is generally disliked the first time it is eaten. It has a very 

 large bone, although that is not the case in fine qualities, called Manilla 

 mango, which has a very thin one and a great deal of pulp. The 

 mango occasionally comes to the United States, but being a very frail 

 fruit, has to be taken from the tree when very green. It does not 

 ripen well, and, if taken when beginning to ripen, it reaches its desti- 

 nation in a decayed condition. 



Alligator Pear. The alligator pear is one of the most delicious 

 fruits that we raise in Mexico, and is properly called vegetable butter, 

 being a good substitute for butter. It is not eaten by itself ; the most 

 usual way to eat it is in salad. We have several kinds and sizes of this 

 fruit. The seed of the alligator pear is oval-shaped and quite large, 

 about 4 inches in length by ij in diameter, and of some oily substance, 

 which, I have no doubt, has some good medicinal properties. 



Mamey. The same is the case with the seed of the mamey, a fruit 

 unknown in the United States, having a red pulp, and a very large 

 seed covered with a thin shell. The Indian women extract an oil 

 from that seed and use it for their hair, and I think it must have many 

 more useful medicinal properties. 



A great many other of our fruits have seeds containing substances 

 which I have no doubt will be found, when analyzed, to be very valua- 

 ble to therapeutics. 



Zapote. The zapote is one of our tropical fruits which does not 

 come to this country. I have just heard that the seeds of the zapote 

 have recently been found by a Mexican doctor to be a very good nar- 

 cotic, which does not produce the ill effects of the drugs now in use. 



Papaya. This fruit, which grows in our hot lands resembles the 

 melon in shape, pulp, and seeds, but its color is of a yellowish-red. It 

 was considered a very common fruit, but recently it was found to be a 

 powerful digestive, and it is already used in Europe as a medicine under 

 the name of Papaine. 



Flowers. 



Mexico is a favored country for flowers. They grow wild in 

 a great many places, and they can be raised at very little cost, as there 

 is no need of hot-houses or any other expensive appliance to cultivate 

 them. The Indians in the small towns around the City of Mexico 



