assembling living plants for shipment to New York, Tucson and 

 Washington. Headquarters were made at the Hacienda El 

 Riego, west of the city, near the foothills of the range bounding J 

 the valley on the west. We met Mr. W. L.' Morkhill, general 

 manager of the railway, the Ferrocarril Mexicano del Sur,. in his 

 office at Puebla, and in his car at Tehuacan, and plans were made 

 by him by which laborers and materials were secured for us by 

 Sr. Daniel Tellez, superintendent of the tram lines of the railway 

 system. In addition Mr. Morkhill arranged with the general 

 manager of the Interoceanic Railway that the car loaded with 

 plants at Tehuacan should be sent through without change or 

 delay to the wharf at Vera Cruz where the crates could be 

 lightered out to the steamer. It is difficult to acknowledge 

 properly the amount of material aid and kindly cooperation re- 

 ceived from Mr. Morkhill in this enterprise. 



The town of Tehuacan lies in the middle of a valley running 

 north and south on the eastern side of the main continental ridge, 

 and this and the neighboring valleys and slopes are a part of one 

 of the most striking deserts in the world, the xerophilous vegeta- 

 tion offering features of adaptation and distribution not previously I 

 encountered elsewhere. The abundance of the Cactaceae rivals , 

 or surpasses even that of the southern part of Arizona and of! 

 Sonora, and, a half dozen of the species being massive forms, 

 the landscape is highly characterized by them. Cereus Weberi, 

 C. geometrizans, Cephalocereus macrocephalus, Piloccreus fulviceps, 

 P. chrysocantha, P. tetetzo, Escontria chiotilla, together with four 

 or five other undescribed forms reach a height and attain a bulk 

 as great or greater than the saguaro. The amount of water 

 stored by such plants on any given area is so great that planters 

 have actually considered the feasibility of obtaining it in quanti- 

 ties by crushing the plants with machineiy. 



and here as elsewhere in Mexico more than one variety practically 

 free from spines have been under cultivation for some time. Of 

 the half dozen species of Echinocactus one forms huge mounds of 

 small individuals as much as three yards across, while E. grandis 

 might as rightly be included among the trees as the saguaro 

 (Ca-eus gigantevs). 



