71 
made of grass, consisting mainly of a roof for shade, and they 
sleep in hammocks. The state laws are very rigid. For exam- 
ple, animal charcoal may not be used for bleaching sugar, because 
it is made from old bones ; and all flour must be made from the 
entire wheat grain. 
The walk across the great desert plain surrounding Tecoman 
was not less interesting than the railway journey. On the right 
is a semicircle of blue mountains overtopped by the volcano of 
Colima ; on the left the plain slopes gradually to the shore of the 
Pacific, a few miles away. Scattered over the plain are oases of 
shade, where tall, spreading cacti and spine-bearing trees ward off 
the surrounding desert with interlacing branches. Careful search 
revealed only three species of cacti, the nopal, the organ cactus, 
and a quadrangular, straggling or climbing species, all of which 
were abundant. The first bore green fruit, the second purplish 
flower-buds, and the third was entirely bare. A few cattle crop- 
ping the dry grass, a silent mocking bird or two, a red squirrel 
gnawing the fruits of a species of Rhamnus, and long files of large, 
red, leaf-cutting ants, each with a piece of leaf held aloft after the 
manner of a sunshade, composed the only visible animal life. 
These ants, determined by Professor Wheeler as Alfa mexicana, 
carry quantities of leaves into their underground nests and cul- 
tivate upon them as they decay a species of fungus, which they 
eat. A closely related species with similar habits occurs in 
Texas. 
On entering the dense jungle lying between the west bank of 
the river and the higher portions of the ridge of hills which shuts 
it off from the ocean, the scene is entirely changed. Yellow-billed 
parrots, fat ground pigeons, large, lazy butterflies of brilliant 
colors, lizards, snakes, squirrels, pigs, deer, pumas, jaguars, and 
many other animals inhabit this jungle in abundance. Many spe- 
ies of fungi were found on the dead and decaying timber, but it 
was too dry for species growing on the ground. To secure these, 
the region should be visited a month or two earlier, before the 
rains have ceased. At one point where I waded the stream, the 
water-lettuce of Florida, Pistia Stratiotes, was abundant on the sur- 
face of the water, beneath large, overhanging palms of the genus 
Cocos. 
