134 



Notes of a Visit to Mexico, 



Cereus sp. I Dipsacozamia mexicana 



Amaryllis sp. Bocconia sp. 



Eehevena acutifolia | Rigidella immaculata. 



On the 13th of August I finally left Oaxaca for Central America, 

 passing once more near that extraordinary tree Taxodium dis- 

 tichtm, which I had visited before on an unsuccessful excursion to 

 the ancient palaces of Mitla. This tree stands in the village of 

 Santa Maria del Ule, about seven leagues south-east of Oaxaca ; it 

 measures at 6 feet from the ground 32^ Spanish yards, or 98 feet 

 English measure in circumference, and is I believe the largest tree 

 of its kind on record. The stem is not perfectly round, for several 

 board-like excrescences descend the main stem in a longitudinal 

 direction from a height of fifteen feet ; these when they reach the 

 ground are from 6 to 8 feet distant from the stem. At the height 

 of 40 feet, the branches, each of which are good-sized trees of 

 several feet in diameter, separate. The top, enormous although it 

 appears, is not in proportion to the stem, both together measuring 

 barely 100 feet in height. The tree grows in dry burning soil, it is 

 surrounded by houses, and is in perfect health ; Santa Maria del 

 Ule, the name of the village in which this tree stands, derives the 

 apposition " Ule" from the tree, and is still known by this name in 

 other parts of the country where the same language is spoken. 

 V\ hen we consider that at the conquest of Mexico the Spaniards 

 allowed the name of this tree to be affixed to the patron saint of 

 the village, the tree must have been even at that period of consi- 

 derable size. This, although the tree is common in the milder 

 parts on the eastern declivity of the great mountain range north 

 of the city of Mexico, is the most southern specimen of the kind 

 witli which I fell in, and it has in all probability been brought 

 from the north, and planted there like the Hand-tree, the two soli- 

 tary specimens of which existing in the city of Mexico and near 

 the town of Toluca, must have been brought from the south. 



After leaving the valley of Oaxaca, the road gradually descends 

 to the shores of the Pacific, along which I travelled for about one 



