218 MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, WEST INDIES. 



East Mexico — Chiapas, Tabasco, and Yucatan. In its forests are intermingled 

 various species of oaks and conifers, some of the latter growing to a height of 

 150 or 160 feet. In ma-ny regions the traveller might fancy himself transported 

 to the pine-groves of the Landes in Gascony, or else to the Pomeranian woodlands. 

 On the low-lying Pacific seaboard the bamboo grows in dense thickets to a height 

 of 100 feet; these thickets, which wave in the breeze like tall cornfields, are 

 traversed by narrow, gloomy galleries made by wald beasts. 



As in Tabasco the giant of the Guitemalan forests is the ceiba, or pyramidal 

 bombax. In the neighbourhood of their settlements the Indians of the plateaux 

 and escarpments generally clear a large space round the ceiba to give it ample 

 room for the development of its wide- spreading branches and rear its majestic 

 form more imposingly aoove the throng of worshippers at its feet. As in south 

 Mexico the whole surface of the forest is interwoven with the coils of lianas 

 gliding snake-like from tree to tree. 



In Yera Paz the enclosures are often formed by a species of arborescent 

 thistle, which grows rapidly and. interlaces its stems so as to form a compact 

 greyish wall carpeted with mosses and ferns intermingled with the large foliage 

 of the plant. The forests of the hot zones near Ratalhulen, as well as those of 

 the Polochic, have become famous for their magnificent orchids. Another 

 remarkable Guatemalan plant is w^ell known to the Indians for the heat emitted 

 by its efflorescence at the moment of fertilisation. Hence its name of Jlor de la 

 calentura ("fever flower") given to it by the Spaniards. 



The tapir, peccary, and a few other mammals inhabit the Guatemalan forests, 

 where, however, no special forms have been discovered except amongst the lower 

 orders of animals. The alligator and some thirty species of fishes in Lake Peten 

 were unknown before Morelet's expedition. Here also has been found a species 

 of trigonocephalus, which completes the series of these dangerous snakes between 

 South Carolina and Guiana. 



Yera Paz is the earthly j)aradise of ornithologists; here is still met the 

 wonderful quezal, or " resplendent couroucou " (trogon jxiron'nns, 2)/iaromacrm 

 pamdiseus), a member of the gallinaceous family, with an emerald-green silky 

 plumage dashed with a golden lustre above, with a lovely purple hue below, and 

 a tail fully three feet long. The Guatemalan republic has chosen this bird as the 

 national emblem. 



Inhabitants. 



The common Guatemalo-Mexican frontier traverses regions whose populations 

 on both sides have the same origin and speak the same languages. Thus the Mayas 

 of Yucatan are found also in the Peten district ; east and west of the TJsumacinta 

 the Lacandons have their camping grounds; Chols, Tzendals, and Marnés occupy 

 the heights and slopes both of the Guatemalan Altos and of Soconusco. But 

 central and east Guatemala are inhabited by ethnical groups distinct from those 

 of the Mexican republic. Yarious attempts have been made to classify these 

 heterogeneous populations according to their afiinities, usages, and languages ; but 



