By Mr, Theodore Hartweg. 



139 



bearing several large yellow flowers on a stem of 18 inches in 

 height. 



Near this place a singular custom is observed by the Indians, 

 who, with loads on their backs, put their feet into a hollow rudely 

 resembling the foot of a human being, made by nature in a large 

 flat rock by the road-side. This precaution they say is necessary 

 in order to prevent them from making a false step on the descent 

 to Argueta. I have no doubt that the carriers of my chests 

 of plants from Quezaltenango, went through this ceremony of 

 " footing." 



Descending the Cuesta de la Alhaja, where I found Passiflora 

 membranacea and the pretty Rigidella immaculata, the latter 

 growing in a dry hard loam, the ground becomes more uneven, 

 and is for the greater part covered with evergreen Oaks, and Pinus 

 oocarpoides. Near Santiago, I found Pinus JilifoUa, producing 

 large cones and long foliage and rising to the height of 40 feet ; 

 judging from its habit and the exposed situation in which it was 

 found, it will no doubt prove as hardy as most Mexican Pines. 



Having arrived at the descent towards the village of Mixco, a 

 beautiful panorama of the town of Guatemala, which lay in the 

 plain below, burst open to the view ; the pleasure I felt after such 

 a long and toilsome, but withal interesting journey, may be easier 

 imagined than described. The plain or rather valley of Guatemala, 

 which is fifteen miles in length by nine in width, enjoys a delight- 

 ful temperature, resembling that of the month of May or June in 

 England; the lowest temperature I observed was in February, 

 when the thermometer occasionally falls to 60° in the morning, and 

 the warmest was in April, when it sometimes rises as high as 80° ; 

 during the rest of the year it ranges from 70 to 75°. 



The plain in which Guatamela is situated, is about 5,000 feet 

 above the level of the sea, and yet Sugarcane, Bananas, Coffee, 

 Cherimogers, Custard Apple, Peaches, Spondias Myrobalanus, 

 (from the fruit of which " Chicha," a favourite beverage of the 



