2 
a large work on the botanical and common names of Mexican 
plants, which I have found of very little practical use when 
travelling widely over the republic. Undoubtedly, the author’s 
work was carefully and laboriously done, and the observations 
recorded are accurate, but the result is invalidated by the effects 
of provincialism, in the manner stated. 
e student undertakes to secure information concerning 
the character of the plants yielding the products, he finds the 
results exasperatingly vague, and even contradictory, and when 
he contemplates visiting the source of supply to obtain this 
information, he is appalled by the distances to be covered, and 
the many different directions in which they lie. It is a most 
common occurrence for these Indians to travel on foot for a 
Fic. 1. Visiting the Source of Supply. 
hundred or a hundred and fifty miles to bring their fruits to 
ket. 
It might be supposed from this that these products would be 
widely, or even generally distributed in commerce, but such is 
far from being the case. On the contrary, provincialism is in 
o other way so strikingly manifest as in the local distribution of 
the cultivation and trade in particular articles or varieties of 
them. I dare say that one who has spent a long life in Mexico, 
