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Pomona College Journal oe Economic Botany 



through large or small valleys, some with water and some without, as was 

 Maltrata. 



Puebla has an elevation of about seven thousand feet and is well within the 

 inland table-lands. No matter in which direction one may leave the city 

 nothing is seen for miles and miles except vast cornfields. Since territory of 

 this description contains very little of interest to the collector, we passed on 

 clown south, after a single day's stop, to the Oaxaca valley. To anyone except 

 the student and collector of cacti and other desert plants the ride from Puebla 

 to Oaxaca is very tiresome, owing to the many miles of intervening desert. 

 One feels fully repaid, however, for the dreary ride when the Oaxaca valley 

 comes into view. Several days .were very profitably spent here in collecting 

 in the neighboring mountains and meadows. A very pleasant trip was made 

 to the state experimental station just outside the city of Oaxaca. Although 

 the station is but one year old, yet the results are already forthcoming through 

 its director, Mr. Felix Foex. On our return north we stopped a short time in 

 the middle of the previously mentioned desert where a large number of cacti 

 and agaves were collected, as well as a fair representation of desert insect life. 

 From this point, Tomellin, we went directly to Vera Cruz, via the National 

 Railways ( Interoceanic). Here we spent a few more days profitably since 

 the faunal and floral life had undergone further seasonal development during 

 our absence of three weeks. 



A few days at Jalapa completed our round-about itinerary from Mexico City 

 and return. 



Jalapa was another of the places classed as beautiful as well as rich, in 

 our estimation. Situated well up in the mountains it has a very agreeable 

 climate and is still tropical in aspect. For palms, orchids, ferns and similar 

 plants we found no place equal to it ; and for insect collecting also it proved 

 very rich. 



From Mexico City a second trip was taken into the state of Morelos chiefly 

 for the purpose of seeing the orange maggot at work on the ripening orange 

 crop. A short visit was paid to Cuernavaca, although there are very few 

 oranges raised there. A longer stay was made at Yautepec, said to be the 

 center of the Republic's citrus industry, and also the worst infested with the 

 maggot. 



Several days were spent in the City of Mexico on our return from Morelos 

 visiting the National Museum at Tacubaya under the charge of Sr. Fernando 

 Perez, and the central agricultural experiment station and National Agri- 

 cultural College, both under the direction of Dr. Jose Ramirez. A trip was 

 made to the Toluca valley west of the city, where a great deal of fruit is 

 raised for the city markets. 



The last place visited by the expedition was the region of San Luis Posoti. 

 This is well within the limits of the great northern desert, where the chief 

 vegetation is cactus and mesquite. Very little insect collecting could be done 

 in the vicinity of the city, but a trip to the Rio Verde district proved a little 

 more successful. Here we visited the state experiment station and were 



