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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE. 



^December 8. 1888. 



white tinged with green in the throat, wholly green 

 on the tube. 



Draciena fragrans var, Lindeni. — This is the well- 

 known D. Lindeni of gardens. It is handsomest 

 when young, old plants becoming much greener. 

 The plant now flowering in the Palm-house is 7 feet 

 high. The inflorescence is terminal, and in the 

 form of an erect branched panicle, with small white 

 pale yellow flowers. 



Orchids. — Amongst Masdevallias in flower are M. 

 pulvinaris, a very remarkable species, with tall 

 peduncles, bearing the purple-brown flowers reversed 

 (lip upwards), and with two oblong, fleshy, yellow 

 processes on the inside of the two upper sepals. 

 M. Moorei, or melanoxantha has large flowers with 

 a chinned cup 1 inch across, and three tailed sepals 

 3 inches long. Colour purple on lower sepals, upper 

 creamy-yellow with purple lines. The labellum is 

 large, and black-purple. M. platyglossa, with dull 

 yellow papery pendant flowers ; M. cucullata, with 

 large deep black-purple flowers; M. polysticta, M. 

 Carderi, M. bella, M. Wallisii, M. macrura, M. 

 melanopus, and others, are also now in flower. A 

 rose-coloured variety of Sophronitis grandiflora is 

 blooming close to flowering examples of the type. 

 Cirrhopetalum Wightianum, with a long peduncle, 

 suddenly bent at the upper end, and bearing yellow 

 flowers, in which the only conspicuous parts are the 

 two long sepals, united by their inner edges and 

 projecting outwards ; Pholidota conchoidea, like P. 

 imbricata, but larger ; Cattleya Iabiata, autumn- 

 flowering variety; Huntleya marginata, Ccelogyne 

 Gardneriana, C. rigida, Polystachya laxiflora, Cata- 

 setum Garnettianum, C. fuliginosum, C. macro- 

 carpum ; Bolbophyllum striatum, and a very fine 

 variety of Odontoglossum Harryanum with nine 

 flowers on a spike, are the most noteworthy of the 

 Orchids now in bloom. W. 



NOTES FROM A NATURALIST 

 IN MEXICO, 



When at last one arrives at the so-called Valley 

 of Mexico — which is not a valley in the usual sense 

 of the word, but rather a high-lying plateau, con- 

 taining large lakes which receive the drainage of the 

 hills around, and have no natural outlet — one ex- 

 pects to see a view of unparalleled grandeur, but this 

 is, like many other popular impressions, by no 

 means the case. The distant cone of Popocatepetl 

 and the more picturesque mountain of Ixtaccihuatl, 

 which, though somewhat lower, has more snow at 

 present on it, are no doubt very high and remark- 

 able mountains ; but their distance, the haze through 

 which they are seen, and the want of beautiful fore- 

 ground in the view, make the scene, in my opinion, 

 infinitely inferior in grandeur and in impressiveness 

 to many of far less reputation, both in the Alps, the 

 Pyrenees, and the Himalayas. 



As to the climate, one must not be too critical at 

 this season, especially when one has just left a winter 

 of unusual severity, both in the United States and 

 Europe, but it is not my idea of a tropical or even a 

 very nice climate. Bright sun and continual almost 

 cloudless sky, cool air, even cold in the morning, 

 with glare and dust, are the characteristics on the 

 plateau and highlands of Mexico for five or six 

 months of the year. 



Pine forests, which I had always expected to find 

 one of the features of the country, are diminishing 

 yearly through the unchecked devastations of fire, 

 charcoal-burners, goats and sheep, and I have not 

 yet seen a tract of forest which has not been much 

 injured in this way, or of which the more accessible 

 parts have not been, in a great measure, destroyed. 

 To find this one must go up to 8000 or 9000 feet on 

 the slopes in the environs of the City of Mexico, so 

 tempting to a naturalist at this season. We lost no 

 lime in going on to Orizaba., about two-thirds of the 

 way in distance to the east coast, and at little more 

 than half the elevation of Mexico City. 



Here, in the midst of Coffee plantations, Sugar- 

 cane and Bananas, with the volcanic peak of Orizaba, 



17,000 feet high, at a short distance, one can find, by 

 looking for them, some really charming bits of forest, 

 but always in deep gorges or barrancas, and never in 

 easily accessible situations. Birds, as in the Valley 

 of Mexico, are numerous and varied, but not espe- 

 cially striking in colour, size, or form. Butterflies 

 are fairly numerous, but mostly belong to the family 

 of HesperidiE, which alone are common at this sea- 

 son. Moths, excepting a few day-flying ^Egeriada;, 

 are scarce, and other insects, excepting dragon-flies, 

 not very showy or numerous. Orchids are fairly 

 abundant, but few showy ones are now in flower, and 

 though the gardens and plantations round the town 

 are full of beautiful, showy plants in flower, of a 

 more or less tropical character, such as Hibiscus, 

 Erythrina and Datura, yet most of them are exotics. 

 A fortnight's stay in Orizaba enabled me to explore 

 the environs pretty thoroughly without finding a 

 single spot within five or six miles which could be 

 called a first-class collecting ground, though at the 

 same time I feel sure that Orizaba would yield a very 

 large number of plants, birds, and insects, to a resi- 

 dent collector. Tuxpango, about three hours to the 

 south-east, is the best place I found, and here are 

 some very picturesque waterfalls, and a lovely 

 tropical gorge, with some fine Coffee plantations 

 under the shade of the forest, which pleased us more 

 than any spot yet visited. On the mountains around 

 Orizaba, which, however, are very steep and pathless, 

 there are some rich and interesting spots in which I 

 found a few fine plants and rare insects ; but the 

 sky, though generally bright in the morning hours, 

 usually clouded by noon, and the weather was not 

 nearly so hot as one would expect in latitude 19°, at 

 4000 feet elevation. 



Going on from Orizaba towards Vera Cruz, one 

 passes through a very rich and fertile country, where 

 Bananas, Pine-apples, Coffee and Sugar are largely 

 grown about Cordoba, and here in the plantation of 

 M. Tonel, a Belgian gentleman, who has been settled 

 in Mexico for many years, I saw a large number of 

 species of Palms, and very many interesting and 

 beautiful tropical and sub-tropical plants. Indeed, 

 I should say this was by far the most interesting 

 garden in Mexico, as the proprietor has a Belgian 

 gardener, and goes to much trouble and expense in 

 making his plantation rather a botanic garden than 

 an ordinary Coffee plantation. But still there is no 

 virgin forest until one gets on towards Attoyac, 

 where the railway passes through some scenery of 

 the true tropical character, and in the few hours I 

 was able to spend here I saw what I had been hoping 

 for so long. As, however, Attoyac is said to be very 

 unhealthy at all seasons, and there is no accommo- 

 dation for a stay, I could only regret my inability to 

 give it a thorough exploration, though probably 

 there is no great amount of novelty to be expected, 

 this part of Mexico having been better worked by 

 naturalists than any other. 



Below Attoyac you get iuto the dry plains border- 

 ing the coast, which are for the most part covered 

 with low, thorny, or scrubby forest, or coarse wiry 

 grass, and infested with small insects called " pino- 

 lillos," which, judging from the amount of precaution 

 and trouble the inhabitants take to get rid of them, 

 must be very disagreeable indeed. A gentleman 

 who got into the tram-car on our way up to Jalapa, 

 two stations out of Vera Cruz, had got amongst 

 these "pinolillos" in passing through some bush, 

 and spent over half an hour, with the assistance of 

 several other passengers, in picking them out of his 

 clothes. A magnificent yellow- flowered tree, figured 

 in Brologsa's Centrale America, was the most con- 

 spicuous ornament, at this season, of these dry, low- 

 country jungles, fori can hardly call them forests, 

 and here alone have I as yet seen Palms growing as 

 a conspicuous feature in the scenery, though several 

 dwarf and slender climbing Palms were common in 

 the gorges about Orizaba and Attoyac, together with 

 two fine plants belonging or allied to the Musacero, 

 both in flower at this season. 



Vera Cruz, though unusually cool and healthy for 

 the time of year, owing to the heavy northerly gales 

 which have prevailed during most of the month of 



March, and which account for the cloudy, cold wea- 

 ther at Cordoba and Orieaba, is not a place that 

 would tempt any one travelling for pleasure to stay 

 in ; and as its hotels are detestable, we lost no time 

 in getting off to Jalapa, which lies on the eastern 

 slope of the mountains about fifty miles north of 

 Orizaba. 



The old road up to Jalapa is said to give an excel- 

 lent idea of the gradual change of climate and 

 vegetation from the coast upwards ; but if this is 

 true, I cannot say the same of the new tramway, 

 which takes one over the forty miles and 5000 feet 

 of ascent in about eleven hours, mules being the 

 motive power, as on many other lines of Mexico. 

 The first half of the way is all through the dry coast 

 jungle, or chapparal, as it is here called, full of 

 Mimosas and other thorny trees and bushes. Brome- 

 liacese are very conspicuous and abundant, as in 

 most parts of this region, and several very fine 

 arborescent Bonaparteas and gigantic Cereus were 

 common at about 2000 feet. But on the whole line 

 there is not a single mile of forest which can be 

 called fine or luxuriant, and water is so scarce that 

 the villages on the route are both few and poor. 

 One fair-sized river is crossed at Puente Nacional, 

 and here we saw some lovely flowering trees, though 

 the speed of the mules, except on steep ascents, did 

 not allow much botanising. A very graceful, fea- 

 thery Bamboo, growing about 15 feet high, appeared 

 at about 3000 feet in one place only on the road, 

 growing gregariously among shrubs and trees, but 

 beyond this I saw nothing very striking. When we 

 got up to about 4000 feet, an open, grassy country, 

 with occasional trees, and small groves in the 

 ravines, was entered, which, through the influence 

 of a small driving rain and dense mist, made the 

 country look more like the Highlands of Scotland 

 than Mexico ; but, notwithstanding the cold, hedges 

 of wild Pine-apples showed that the mean tempera- 

 ture must be high. 



Jalapa itself, when reached, is decidedly the most 

 enjoyable place of residence for a naturalist that I 

 have yet seen in America. The climate is damper 

 and cooler than that of anyplace of similar elevation 

 I have seen. There are numerous bits of very 

 charming country of varied character within a walk 

 of the town. A very tolerable hotel, cure, and law- 

 abiding inhabitants, a capital naturalist's servant, 

 named Alyssio Trujillo, who accompanied us for 

 some time, and can both shoot and skin birds well, 

 and fine weather, all combined to render our stay at 

 Jalapa a bright and delightful sojourn. There is 

 between Jalapa and Coantepec a good deal of real 

 virgin forest, abounding in plants, birds, and insects, 

 and having at least two broad and good roads 

 through it, without which collecting in a virgin 

 forest is so difficult and incomplete. At this season 

 the forest, which consisted largely of Planes, Oaks, 

 Liquidambars, and other trees of a temperate aspect, 

 was dry and pleasant to go about in, and numerous 

 small clearings in it made a variety which, if not 

 carried to the extent which it generally is, is favour- 

 able to all animal life. 



On the north side of the town, at about an hour's 

 distance, is a delightful park-like, grazing country, 

 covered with groves of trees, and intersected by 

 richly-wooded gorges, a very paradise for birds, and 

 having in fine weather a perfect climate, though it is 

 said that the rainy days in the year outnumber the 

 fine ones. Farther on towards the north we did not 

 go, but Mr. Godman, who spent a month in and 

 about Misantla, three days' ride north of Jalapa, 

 describes the deep descent from the table-land to the 

 dense forest as very fine, and the country extremely 

 rich and productive to a naturalist. North-west of 

 Jalapa is the Confre de Perote, a volcanic mountain 

 13,000 or 14,000 feet high, with fine Pine forests on 

 its slopes, but at this season the high country was 

 too cold to visit for collecting purposes, and I am 

 unable to say whether the Pine forests on this slope 

 are as much damper and richer in herbaceous plants 

 and accompanying insects than those of the central 

 plateau, as one would expect them to be. 



We returned from Jalapa to Cordoba on horse- 



