the present time, but I wish to refer to the use of the enormous 
heads or buds, just previous to flowering, and trimmed of their 
projecting leaves, for food. They are placed in pits or ovens and 
baked or roasted for many hours. On being removed, they are 
of a rich deep-brown color, their form being perfectly preserved, 
and very sticky with the exuded sugar. I have fr aah seen 
them for sale in the market places, of great size and I shoul 
think weighing as much as 200 pounds. They are oe old 
entire or the immense scale-like leaf-bases are pulled off and 
sold separately. As a food, this article is to be regarded rather 
as a sweet preserve 
Other curiosities in the line of native foods are the large fleshy 
roots of Prionosciadium diversifolium Rose, which I encountered 
on Limon Mountain. These roots in size and form reminded me 
considerably of those of spikenard (Aralia racemosa). I was 
informed that the natives cook and eat them as we do parsnips 
and carrots. 
Various species of fungi are collected in Mexico for home use 
or for sale in the markets as food. I purchased in this way 
sae ace from some Indian women while collecting it 
the ntains near Toluca, and a rather large species of 
ull ball in in nk market of Mexico City. 
Another curiosity was the sale inthe Mexican City markets 
of the herbage of a purple-flowered species of Oxalis, looking not 
unlike O. Acetosella. It is used as an ingredient of salads and 
is said to be eagerly bought by Mexican epicures. I afterwards 
saw the natives collecting it on the banks by the roadside, whe 
it completely carpeted the soil, consisting of partially decayed 
r I have not yet had time to determine the species 
In the market of Queretaro, I was surprised to see dee common 
purslane (Portulaca lee) regularly sold as a culinary vege- 
table. For one cent, equal to half a cent of our money, I pur- 
chased as much as could be crowded into a quart jar, and, being a 
gringo, I was doubtless cheated. 
It is worthy of note that I found growing in the rich soil 
among rocks at the foot of a cliff near Cuicatlan, Oaxaca, a 
very small species of Solanum, bearing tubers. So far as I have 
