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pounds or more in weight, are baked into a sugary mass which is 

 eaten as a sort of sweet conserve. In these cultivated lands, the 

 Prosopis becomes a tree, much resembling a spreading oak, or 

 even a large apple tree. These trees are left standing in the 

 cultivated ground and their branches become the support for 

 stacks of hay or other fodder, thus placed out of reach of maraud- 

 ing animals. 



In the vicinity of Iruapato, vast areas are devoted wholly to 

 the culture of the strawberry, irrigation by the use of shallow 

 wells being resorted to, and the delicious fruit being supplied 

 throughout the year. The natural aspects of the vegetation 

 here have largely disappeared, owing to the fact that the land 

 is almost wholly cultivated, but in the waste places there is a 

 rich and varied herbaceous and suffrutescent flora. In many 

 places the steep hillsides and narrow valleys are used only for 

 grazing purposes and here there is often a dense covering of 

 large shrubs or small trees. In some places these trees consist 

 largely of junipers, intermingled with Acacia, Prosopis, Arctosta- 

 phylos and cotton-woods, while along the edges of the streams 

 the beautiful and often enormous Mexican cypress begins to 

 appear. A specimen of the last-named tree, growing in Oaxaca 

 and called "the Tule, " is one of the largest trees in the world. 

 A strange and very showy effect is sometimes produced amidst 

 this arborescent hill growth by the abundance of loranthaceous 

 parasites which it supports. Much of this parasitic growth 

 consists only of Phoradendron, and is merely green or yellowish 

 green, but at times the crowns of the trees in all directions will 

 be seen invaded by masses of brightly colored members of this 

 family, the entire mass glowing with brilliant scarlet, crimson or 

 yellow. Sometimes almost the entire crown of a juniper tree 

 will be occupied by such a growth. During the rainy season 

 many of the natural hollows will be converted into pools, some- 

 times acquiring the dimensions of small lakes. In addition to 

 these natural deposits of water, artificial ones are created by the 

 farmers, wherever there is a sloping surface which can be dyked 

 with mud at its lower boundaries, so that one sees so much 

 water as to create the impression that he is in a country of 



