JOURNAL 
The New York Botanical Garden 
Vow. XL es 7 March: 1910. a No. 123. 
COLLECTING FUNGI IN SOUTHERN MEXICO. 
Dr. N. L. Britton, Drrecror-1n-CHleF. 
Si: Following your instructions, I sailed from New York, 
accompanied by Mrs. Murrill, on the S.S. “ Merida” of the Ward 
Line, December 2, bound for Veracruz, the special object of the 
expedition being to secure specimens and descriptive notes and 
drawings of the higher fleshy and woody oe which have here- 
tofore been very imperfectly known from Mexi 
Cuba was reached at sunrise on December 6, oe the ship re- 
mained in the harbor at Havana all day. On the morning of 
December 8, we anchored in twenty feet of water four miles from 
Progresso on the coast of Yucatan and went ashore in a steam 
tug. The town is small and uninteresting except for the im- 
mense amount of henequen fiber that passes through it as the 
chief port of Yucatan. About 500 ships call at this port during 
the year, mostly for henequen. Large storehouses for the bales 
of fiber may be seen along the beach. The sandy soil supports 
little vegetation, the sea grape, some species of cacti and a few 
cocoanut and almond trees being the chief plants noticed. 
The train for Merida, the capital of Yucatan, left Progresso 
about the middle of the forenoon and traversed the twenty-two 
miles in an hour, first crossing a broad lagoon near the coast, 
filled with mangrove, and passing for the remaining distance 
through the very extensive heniquen plantations for which Yuca- 
tan is famous. The bed of coral rock which constitutes the only 
soil here seems particularly well adapted to the formation of fiber 
57 
