October io, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



o 



87 



these piiiplillos in passing through some bush, and spent over 

 half an hour, witli the assistance of several other passengers, 

 in picking them out of his clothes. A magnificent yellow- 

 fiowered tree, figured in Brologsa's " Centrale America," 

 was the most conspicuous ornament, at this season, of these 

 dry, low-country jungles, for I can hardly call them forests, 

 and liere alone have I as yet seen Palms growing as a con- 

 spicuous 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 Musacea, 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 pre- 

 vailed during most of the month of March, and which account 

 for the cloudy, cold weather at Cordoba anil Orizaba, is not a 

 place that would tempt any one traveling 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 excellent idea of the gradual change of cli- 

 mate 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 5,000 feet of ascent in about 

 eleven hours, mules being the motive power, as on many 

 other lines in 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. Bromeliacecs are 

 very conspicuous and abundant, as in most parts of this re- 

 gion, and several very fine arborescent Bonaparteas and 

 gigantic Cereus were common at about 2,000 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 vil- 

 lages 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 botanizing. A very 

 graceful, feathery Bamboo, growing about fifteen feet high, ap- 

 peared at about 3,000 feet in one place only on the road, grow- 

 ing gregariously among shrubs and trees, but beyond this I 

 saw nothing very striking. When we got up to about 4,000 

 feet, an open, grassy country, with occasional trees, and small 

 groves in the ravines, was entered, which, through the in- 

 fluence of a small, driving rain and dense mist, made the 

 country look more like the Higlilandsof Scotland than Mexico; 

 but, notwithstanding the cold, hedges of wild Pineapples 

 showed that the mean temperature must be high. Jalapa 

 itself, when reached, is decidedly the most enjoyable place 

 of residence for a natui-alist that I have yet seen in America. 

 The climate is damper and cooler than that of any place 

 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, cur6, and law-al>iding 

 inhabitants, a capital naturalist's servant, named Alyssio Tru- 

 jillo, 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, lairds 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, Liquidamljers, and other trees of a temperate aspect, 

 was dry and pleasant to go about in, and numerous small clear- 

 ings in it made a variety which, if not carried to the extent 

 which it generally is, is favorable to all animal life. On the 

 north side of the town, at aliout an hour's distance, is a delight- 

 ful 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 

 Cofre de Perote, a volcanic mountain 13,000 or 14,000 feet high, 

 with fine I^ine forests on its slopes, but at this season the high 

 country was too cold to visit for collecting purposes, and lam 

 unable to say whether the Pine forests on this slope are as 

 much damper and richer in herbaceous plants and accompa- 

 nying insects than those of the central plateau, as one would 

 expect them to be. We returned from Jalapa to Cordoba on 

 horseback, a ride which, for varied vegetation, beautiful scenery, 

 and general interest would be hard to beat in Mexico ; and 

 though on two of the five nights spent on the road our lodg- 



ings were of a very primitive character, yet a lady was able 

 to enjoy it thoroughly. Some of the barrancas — five crossed 

 on this ride — are very deep and perpendicular ; two rivers 

 have to be passed on rafts, the horses swimming or wading, 

 but the ride along the edge of the Barranca de los Pescados, as- 

 cending from 2,000 to about 5,000 feet, on the second day, has 

 many very fine views indeed, and the peak of Orizaba, both on 

 this and the next day, is an object of culminating importance. 

 In tlie Oak forest between Las Balsas and Pinea Bromeliacea:, 

 Orchids and other Epiphytes were in the greatest abundance. 

 I gathered thirteen or fourteen species of Orchids in an hour 

 from the low trees without getting off my horse. This was 

 between 3,000 and 4,000 feet, but a few miles further on we 

 got into a region where, though the forest was much finer and 

 denser with green undergrowth. Orchids were not so numer- 

 ous or varied. 



We saw a fine dark crimson Hibiscus, with a trailing habit, 

 in this part of Mexico only, and a splendid Gesneriaceous 

 plant of great size growing in the damp, shady ravines, to- 

 gether with many Tree-Ferns and other large and handsome 

 Ferns, which seemed more abundant about San Bartolo than 

 anywhere I have yet been. In fact, we thought San Bartolo as 

 good a place for collecting as any in this part of the country. 

 It is charmingly situated in the midst of a good deal of virgin 

 forest, at about 5,000 feet, and within easy reacli of deep, hot 

 gorges full of purely tropical vegetation, and close under the 

 high slopes of the Volcano of Orizaba. 



Beyond Huatusco, where we slept on the third night from 

 Jalapa and found very fair quarters, the country becomes less 

 broken and picturesque, though still very pretty. Returning 

 to the high plateau of Mexico, we found the contrast between 

 the dry, dusty, windy climate and the region we had just left, 

 even more striking than at first. Round Pueblo, where we 

 stayed a week, there is little or no indigenous vegetation, 

 except here and there on dry rocky hills and in tlie few places 

 where the soil is too poor for cultivation. The Malinche, an 

 extinct volcano of 13,000 feet, is covered on its lower slopes 

 with stunted Pines, which are fast succumbing to the attacks 

 of the Woodman and charcoal burner; but the only spot where 

 we have found any forest at all likely to contain much of 

 interest is at El Pinal, about twenty-five miles out on the rail- 

 way leading to Los Llanos, and here are a good many birds 

 and insects quite different from those yet seen, and some 

 Vaccinia and other plants, which are apparently quite at home 

 on the dry sandy granite, of which these hills seem to be 

 mostly composed. 



Cirencester, England. H. "J . Ehi'CS. 



Foreign Correspondence. 

 London Letter. 



A GOOD number of first-class certificates were 

 awarded to new and rare plants and flowers at 

 the meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society to-day, the 

 most important of which was the Nepaul Lily {Lilium 

 Nepalense), which has flowered here for the first time in 

 cultivation. It was introduced and shown by Messrs. 

 Hugh Low & Co., of Clapton. It is distinct and beautiful, 

 and its certificate-vote was unanimous. The only Lily 

 with which I can compare it is the rare L. polyphylhim, 

 also a native of the Himalayas, which is somewhat similar 

 in growth and flower. The stem of L. Nepaknse is slen- 

 der, about three feet high, sparsely furnished with short 

 and rather broad, deep green leaves. Each stem is termi- 

 nated by a single flower, which is about four inches across, 

 and with sepals and petals reflexed. The ground color, an 

 intensely deep purple-crimson, is mottled v\-ith yellowish- 

 white, and the tips of each petal are of the same pale color. 

 It cannot be termed a showy Lily, but it has a peculiar 

 form and color wdiich every one admires. j\Ir. Baker, the 

 authority at Kew on Lilies, had never before seen it in 

 flower, though he knew it well by descriptions and illus- 

 trations. It is a native of the temperate portions of the 

 western and central Himalayan region, and it may not 

 prove a perfectly hardy plant in England. If, however, it 

 is not hardy, it is a beautiful green-house Lily. 



The certificated plant next in importance was the ex- 

 quisite white-flowered variety of Oncidium ornilhorhyn- 

 chuni, an Orchid as rare as it is beautiful. It is the coun- 

 terpart of the typical form now common, except that the 



