June 7, 1893. J 



Garden and Forest. 



243 



can Alder, Alnus acuminata, were seen. Here this tree grew 

 one to two feet in diameter and twenty-five to forty feet liigh. 

 At first the Pine-trees were the Montezuma Pine only ; but far 

 above there, mingled with this another species of Pine, not 

 identified by me. As it was not fruiting, specimens were not 

 secured. Cool, wet ravines were occupied by a narrow belt 

 of the Mexican Fir, Abies religiosa. With the exception of the 

 few Alders and Firs mentioned, all the broad expanse of forest 

 was composed of Pines. In size and in beauty the trees would 

 compare well with Pinus ponderosa, as seen on the mountains 

 of New Mexico. 



Only a few fiowers were seen, those worthy of mention be- 

 ing Halenia piantaginea, Griseb., and Stenanthium frigidum, 

 Kunth. At the uppermost milk-ranch, a cabin covered with 

 pine-rifts, we halt to buy mill? and eat our breakfast. For a 

 mile from this point to the timber-line the trail is steeper. A 

 pretty Castilieia, C. scorzonerasfolia, is here met with, and the 

 white flowers of an undescribed Sabazia, S. subnuda, Rob. 

 and Sea., are abundant and simulate Daisies. The yellow flow- 

 ers of Potentilla ranunculoides, Benth., are also conspicuous. 

 Scarcely are we above the limit of trees ere we begin to meet 

 with Eryngium protaeflorum, Delar., a stout plant two feet 

 high, with silvery, spiny leaves and a single large blue head of 

 flowers at its top. A little further up we first see a Thistle of 

 similar size and habit, the entire plant whitish with floccose 

 pubescence and the single head as large as an orange. In 

 bare, gravelly soil are found mats of Senecio Halleri, Klatt, a 

 dwarf plant with yellow flowers, and we linger awhile to gather 

 our complement of fifty specimens. Then next, in similar sit- 

 uations, appear mats of a dwarf Castilieia, crimson, with its 

 abundant bloom. Neither are we able to pass this, but collect 

 freely of it as we climb the steeps. Eventually it proves to be 

 Casfilleia densa, Rob. and Sea., n. sp. The grasses of these 

 upper slopes are Festuca lividia, and F. ovina, var. Trisetum 

 Tolucense, Agrostis virescens, Calamagrostis Orizaba;, and a 

 variety of Deschampsia caespitosa. It is disappointing to find 

 not a Sedge. On coldest steeps, just under the summit, Mu- 

 senium alpinum, Coult. and Rose, forms a dense sod in patches 

 several feet broad ; Helenia crasiuscula grows sparsely, and 

 Draba Jorullensis, HBK., more common. 



From the limit of trees to the rim of the crater is two miles 

 or more. Wegain the rim at noon, in one of its lowest gaps 

 on the north side, and halt among great blocks of rock to 

 recover breath and to survey the scene. Before us yawns the 

 vast crater, oval in form, a mile wide by two miles in length 

 from east to west. As we have happened upon fine weather, 

 the crater is filled with mellow sunlight and everything is dis- 

 tinctly visible. In the bottom, some six hundred feet below 

 us, lie five small lakes of the deepest blue. Among them 

 rises a hill several hundred feet high, a huge pile of broken 

 rock. The sides of the crater within are steep gravel slides, 

 six hundred to one thousand feet high. The color of the gravel 

 varies from lightest gray through brown to purple, according 

 as it is affected by the character of the overhanging rocks. 

 The colors run in lines from top to bottom, and softly shade 

 from one to the other. Here and there on the crater's rim rise 

 rocky knobs or peaks of the same varying hues. 



We turn to look in the direction from which we have come. 

 Far to the north the eye follows a waving line of mountains, 

 whose summits are covered with green forests. Beyond the 

 far-reaching vaUey of Toluca, dotted with towns and spangled 

 with shining lakes, stretches a similar range, the Sierra de las 

 Cruces, continued by the Monte Alto. The scene is one of 

 the utmost grandeur. 



While my assistant, with a boy's desire to climb to the 

 highest pinnacle, sets out with the' three strongest men to ex- 

 plore and measure with aneroid the peaks 01 the rim, I, intent 

 on learning what plants grow on the crater's bottom, descend 

 to the lakes with the others of our party and the animals, by a 

 steep path in the gravel. In the soft, bare soil on the margins 

 of the lakes, rosettes of Calandrinia acaulis are common. On 

 wet bottoms, Alchemilla pinnata, hitherto known only from 

 South American Andes, forms litUe patches of the softest and 

 densest green; a dwarf Umbillifer, Oreomyrrhis Andina, forms 

 other mats ; and Dissanthelium selerochloides, one of tlie least 

 of grasses, shows scattered tufts an inch or two in height. Over 

 the moist, bare gravel is widely scattered Draba Tolucensis. 

 In the shelter of rocks, thrown down from beetling ledges, is 

 Gnaphalium Popocatspecium DC, and a species of Cerastium 

 quite as tomentose. On the slopes and ridges above the 

 lakes a Plantain grows in large dense clumps. It is Plantago 

 linearis. With it is an Erysimum. These few species, besides 

 the Thistle and Grasses mentioned as seen first on the outer 

 side, are the only flowering-plants seen by me within the crater. 

 Even the Mosses and Lichens proved to be few and stunted. 



As I gather these in the warm, serene sunlight amid a silence 

 that seemed profound, ranging widely in my search, drinking 

 of eacli clear cold lake, the faint shout of my comrades readies 

 me from time to time, or I see tlieir forms against the sky- 

 line far and high, as they clamber over almost impassable 

 ledges, or toil through deep gravel or deeper snows. Half the 

 afternoon has gone by ere my brave boy, with only the daunt- 

 less forester at his heels, scales a peak on the south-western 

 side and finds it to be the loftiest of all, or four hundred feet 

 higher than that one on the Toluca side, which is commonly 

 taken for the highest point of the mountain. Then our party 

 come together again for lunch by one of the lakes ; we pass 

 out of the crater by an easier trail and lower gap on its eastern 

 side, and, winding around the mountain-side, descend intotlie 

 shelter of the forest and spread our beds near the cabin where 

 we took breakfast. 



The next day, reversing our course, we collect, on our way 

 to the crater and while yet under the Pines, Lupinus Mexi- 

 canus, and those species noted, but passed by before. From 

 the summit ledges we take Gnaphalium lavandulaceum, a 

 shrubby species. That second evening, mostly after night- 

 fall, with heavy loads of plants, we descend to Calimaya, a 

 thunder-storm, with its mountain-torrents overtaking us on the 

 way. The following morning sees us marching back to 

 Toluca. 



Twice, at intervals, we repeated this visit to the volcano fol- 

 lowing up wet ravines and gleaning extensively througn the 

 forest. This labor was rewarded with Sabazia humilis, Cav., 

 a variety of Gentiana Wrightii, Gray, Pencedanum Tolucense, 

 Hemsl., Aplopappusstoloniferus, Ribesjorullense, ablackCur- 

 rant, ten to twenty feet high, Agrostis fasciculata, Cupressus 

 Benthami, Spiranthes pauciflora, Eupatorium Saltivarii, Ca- 

 calia prenanthoides, Eryngium Bonplandii, Hieracium prae- 

 morsiforme, Cnicus Jorullensis and Piquiera Pringlei, n. sp. Of 

 course, some plants of common distribution were seen on the 

 lower slopes. Twice we were again in the crater, each time 

 in stormy weather. We ate our lunch amid cold gales, whirl- 

 ing clouds and falling snow. We gleaned for more plants with 

 no success, then gave our time to collecting lichens and 

 mosses. 



As far as I could judge, the volcano of Toluca did n&t dis- 

 charge lava, but rather blew out immense quantities of por- 

 phyritic gravel. This is shown by the character of the gravel 

 slides within and without the crater and by the deep grave: of 

 the same character covering the slopes of the mountain and 

 scattered over the surrounding country. 



To the tourist I can recommend, without reserve, a visit of 

 Toluca. In the city of Toluca it is considered quite the thin^ 

 to take your friends there for a pleasure-trip. Ladies ride 

 through the crater in the saddle. But let the tourist, if he be 

 not a naturalist, follow the advice of my friends in the palace 

 of Calimaya, and make his visit in February, when the rains 

 are not on, and when the clouds have not begun to gather^ 

 At that season he will find delight amid those wonderful scenes 

 and in the clear air and warm sunshine. 



Charlotte, Vt. C. G. Prillglc. 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Hybrid Gladioli. — Although there are one hundred and 

 thirty species of Gladiolus, the popular representatives of 

 the genus in the garden are chiefly of hybrid origin. The 

 most recent additions are the two hybrid races named 

 G. Lemoinei and G. Nanceanus, the former the result ot 

 crossing G. Gandavensis and other forms with G. purpureo- 

 auratus, the latter being the outcome of crossing G. Le- 

 moinei with G. Saundersii. These two races are of first- 

 rate merit. There is also the hybrid race called G. Childsii, 

 raised from G. Saundersii, and the large-flowered forms of 

 G. Gandavensis. To these we have now to add two hybrids 

 raised by Messrs. Dammann & Co., of Naples, who sent 

 flowers of both to Kew a few days ago. They are called G. 

 Victorialis and G. Papilio X Gandavensis, the former being 

 the result of crossing G. communis, a European species, 

 purple-flowered and very similar to the common G. sege- 

 tum, with G. cardinalis or G. Colvillei. The hybrid has 

 leaves an inch broad, slender spikes a foot long bearing 

 rosy mauve flowers an inch long. The otherhybrid, whose 

 parents are indicated in its name, is a slender plant with 

 leaves less than an inch broad and loose eight to ten flow- 



