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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXI. No 536 



region more than 50 species of ferns that were new to science. 

 In this region are cultivated cotton, sugar-cane, coffee, pineap- 

 ples, bananas, oranges, lemons, wheat, corn, potatoes, and many 

 other interesting and valuable plants. The markets of Orizaba, 

 at an elevation of 4,000 feet, displayed the most extensive variety 

 of vegetables and fruits I ever saw in one collection. In this 

 region there were many beautiful birds with some mammals and 

 reptiles, but after plants insects were perhaps the most interest- 

 ing zoological features of the locality. Professor Blatchley, in 

 eleven days' collecting, took 160 species of moths, 145 of butter- 

 flies, 135 of coleoptera, 60 of hemiptera, and 40 of orthoptera. 

 Other kinds of insects were numerous, but no collections were 

 made of them. (See Entomological News, May, 1893.) From 

 6,000 feet upward the character of the different kinds of life 

 changes rapidly, and the numbers of individuals and the variety 

 of species are greatly diminished. In two days' collecting at 8,000 

 feet. Professor Blatchley only took about a dozen species of but- 

 terflies and beetles, and other forms of life seem to diminish in 

 numbers quite as rapidly as the insects. Birds were an excep- 

 tion, for they were as numerous and varied at 8,000 feet as 

 below. 



Above 7,000 feet the different forms of life were more like 

 those of the northern zones. There were oaks and elders, mus- 

 tards, plantains, chickweeds, dock, violets, and familiar ferns; 

 sparrows, meadow-larks, blackbirds, crows, woodpeckers and 

 humming-birds were common along with many unfamiliar forms. 

 But while vegetation was abundant, there were no forests similar 

 to those so common in the temperate zone. 



were much more abundant in the summer, though more orchids 

 and some other plants bloom in the dry season. So that whether 

 one visits Citlaltepetl in summer or winter he will find the plant- 

 life interesting and well worthy of consideration. Insects were 

 found up to the 14,000 feet level, and I saw two white butterflies 

 at the summit, but the number of species found above 9,000 

 feet were very few. Between 8,000 and 9,000 feet there were 

 some familiar birds, but above and below these levels most of 

 the birds were peculiar to the locality. There seemed to be sev- 

 eral species of humming-birds and many others with highly col- 

 ored plumage, but we heard no songs more beautiful than we hear 

 in temperate zones. 



Sparrows were common up to 14, 000 feet, and I heard one while 

 on the summit, but whether he made his home there or was only 

 a visitor like myself, I could not tell. Woodpeckers were busy 

 about the trees between 13,000 and 14,000 feet, and several other 

 birds were seen and heard at that elevation. 



The rainy season was not favorable for collecting birds, but 

 Professor Cox secured some very interesting specimens. Among 

 reptiles, lizards were the most common, and they seemed just as 

 lively near the 14,000 feet level as on the coast sands. Sala- 

 manders were found near the 14,000 feet level and at other lo- 

 calities on the slope, toads and tree-toads were seen, and collec- 

 tions of snakes were seen, but no live ones were taken by the 

 party. Lizards are much more abundant in the dry season. I 

 took more in three hours one day in April than the whole party 

 saw in fifteen days in July. We saw rabbits, had mice in camp 

 at 13,000 feet, saw evidences of moles, ground squirrels, and 



Fig. 5. — Same as Fig. 4, but taken during tlie "wet season. 



Pines are connmon from 6,000 feet upward, but the forests of 

 pine and spruce begin at about 9,000 feet, thinning out above 

 13,000 feet, so that the forest scarcely reaches 13,000 feet, although 

 in some localities trees are found up to the 14,000 feet level. 

 Above 13,000 feet a species of juniper spreads out over the rocks 

 so that at a distance it appeared like moss. Along the slopes 

 above 13,000 feet there were mustards, compositse, castelleias, 

 and a few other plants with two grasses, but no ranunculacese, 

 claytonias, willows, or other water-loving vegetation so common 

 on the high slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. The 

 distribution is different in the two localities, on Orizaba indi- 

 viduals of the same species are seldom in groups, while on the 

 other mountains great areas are often covered by one species. 

 Near the 14,000 feet level, at the foot of a cliff looking east and 

 south, where there was an indication of moisture, we found 14 

 or 15 species of plants, some of which had not been seen else- 

 where above 13,000 feet. Only four species extended to any dis- 

 tance above this cliff, they were a castelleia and a draba, both 

 nearly stemless, and scattering bunches of two grasses, probably 

 an agrostis and a bromus, and these were passed at about 15,500 

 feet. The oaks stopped abruptly just above 9,000 feet. The 

 ylite tree, whose thick bark furnishes a valuable dye, stopped as 

 abruptly just above the 11,000 feet level. 



A thistle, with a large white blossom, was seen only above 

 13,000 feet. Others again, as the castelleia, had a wide range, 

 gradually diminishing in size as the elevation increased. Between 

 8,000 and 9,000 feet there were nearly as many flowers in April 

 as in July, while above 9,000 feet in July we found nearly 75 

 species, but in April scarcely a half-dozen were found, of which 

 the castelleia and draba were two. In the regions below, flowers 



other burrowing animals. Saw tracks of antelope and coyotes 

 above 14,000 feet, but mammalian life did not seem to be abun- 

 dant. Fish are abundant in the streams of the dry season, bur 

 during the wet season the streams are muddy torrents, containing 

 but few fish and it is almost impossible to do successful fishing 

 in such rapid streams, so that but few species were taken. Those 

 taken were interesting, some of which are probably new to sci- 

 ence. The predominant forms of life were plants, insects, and 

 birds. 



Professor Seaton collected over 500 species of shrubs and herbs 

 between the 3,000 feet and 14,000feet levels, and made many in- 

 teresting observations as to the distribution of plant-life within 

 those limits and the families and genera most abundantly repre- 

 sented by the flora of Orizaba (see Proceedings Indiana Academy 

 of Science, 1891). The vegetation, insect-life, and birds were all 

 we expected, but serpents, tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes, and 

 the like, so common in pictures of tropical life, were seldom 

 seen. We found the zoological altitude zones somewhat like the 

 latitude zones, but with interesting variations, the details of 

 which will be brought out fully in the reports from the different 

 members of the party. 



The Ascent. 

 The ascent of Citlaltepetl is neither difficult nor dangerous. 

 Leaving Vera Cruz or the City of Mexico by the morning train, 

 one reaches San Andres early in the afternoon, then by tramway, 

 about six miles, to Chalchicomula, a little town of some 3,000 

 people situated on the western slope of the mountain at an eleva- 

 tion of about 8,300 feet. At this place, guides and horses may 

 be engaged and other preparations made for continuing the 



