56 MEXICO, CENTEAL AMEEICA, WEST INDIES. 



Many of the numerous species of the Mexican flora have found a home in the 

 eastern hemisphere. From Mexico comes the chocolate plant, which has pre- 

 served its Aztec name ; a species of arachis, the cacahuate, which also retains its 

 native désignation in a modified form ( tlacacahuatl) ; the pine-apple, the tomato 

 {(omatl of the Indians) ; the agave, and the various species of cactus, jalap, sarsa- 

 parilla and other medicinal plants, balsams, gums, and resius. Both the potato 

 and tobacco are also indigenous to Mexico. 



The European gardens, orchards, and conservatories are being continually en- 

 riched by exotics from Mexico ; the naturalist Poyet alone has introduced into 

 France as many as sixty species of fruit trees and ornamental plants from the 

 single province of Jalapa. On the other hand all foreign species may be acclima- 

 tised in the vast "botanical garden " formed by the successive terraces which rise 

 from the seaboard at Vera Cruz or Mazatlan to the uplands of Guadalajara and 

 Zacatecas. The banana, whose name is of Sanskrit origin, and which has no 

 original designation in any American language, was probably introduced into the 

 New World through the Canaries and Haiti. Wheat was brought by a negro 

 slave belonging to Cortes, and Bernard Diaz tells us how he himself planted seven 

 or eio-ht orange pips which grew to be fine plants, the " first " in Mexico. The 

 conquerors also planted the first vine in this fertile soil, where every industry 

 depending on the products of the vegetable kingdom might be practised. 



At a comparatively recent epoch, that is, during tertiary and quaternary times, 

 the Mexican fauna comprised several species of large quadrupeds comparable in 

 size to those of the Old World. Bernard Diaz had already noticed certain " giants' 

 bones," which he attributed to the predecessors of the Aztecs, and to similar finds 

 are due such names as cerro, loma or llano del gigante, now occurring in various parts 

 of the republic. These remains, which have from time immemorial been used in the 

 native pharmacopoeia, and which appear to be really efficacious in several maladies, 

 are for the most part those of mastodons, rhinoceroses, elephants, deer, and horses. 

 Under the Tequisquiac hill, north of Mexico, a new species of gigantic armadillo 

 has been discovered, which has been named the gh/ptodon clavipes. 



The present Mexican fauna belongs, like its flora, to the North American zone, so 

 far as regards the plateau regions, and to the Antilles in respect of the coastland 

 round the Gulf, while that of the Pacific seaboard is intermediate between the 

 Calif ornian and South American. In the general aspect of its terrestrial animals, 

 Mexico is connected more with the United States, whereas in its marine forms 

 the reverse movement has taken place. Thus the prevailing species in the Gulf of 

 Mexico as far as Tamaulipas and Texas, and the Pacific coast northwards to 

 Sonora and Lower California, have migrated from South America. The species in 

 the two oceanic basins differ almost completely, and despite the proximity of the 

 Pacific and Atlantic shores, their shells are quite distinct. 



In the hot lowlands, where the atmosphere is most charged with vapours, are 

 concentrated the largest number of genera and species ; but this may be due to the 

 fact that here the populations are less dense, and the work of extermination conse- 

 quently less advanced than in the temperate regions. Three species of monkeys 



