T64 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), Leeselix 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! left an éléve 
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 rtd London — 
tural Society. Made fine collections, especially about Orizaba, 
he settled. 
