Photo by Dr. C. William Beebe 



This pastoral scene is where two springs — one hot, the other cold — arise close together, 

 near the city of Colima and the active volcano of the same name, in western Mexico. This 

 part of the country is noted for its enormous wild fig trees. 



from Santa Lucrecia to Cordoba, and 

 wherever I came across one of those little 

 Mormon settlements which dot the prairie 

 stretches of this region there were fields 

 of corn to be seen the like of which may 

 be met in but few parts of the United 

 States. 



Uncounted generations before the 

 United States came into being the In- 

 dians of Mexico had their little patches 

 of corn. It was the great staple of 

 Montezuma's court, and to this day it is 

 almost the sole support of the Mexican 

 Indian. 



There are few parts of Mexico, either 

 in the hot belt adjoining the sea or on 

 the table-lands between the mountains, 

 where corn is not cultivated with success. 

 How valuable the crop might be made 

 when farmed in the Illinois and the Iowa 

 way is shown by the wonderful success 

 with which the Mormons have met when 

 undisturbed by war. 



History does not recall the time when 

 cotton first was cultivated in Mexico. 

 The Spaniards found it there. Indians 

 clothed with cotton garments were first 



seen by Columbus along the coast of 

 Yucatan at the very dawn of the six- 

 teenth century. The Toltecs wrote in 

 their sacred books that Quetzalcohuatl, 

 god of the air, grew cotton of all colors 

 in his garden and taught them its many 

 uses. In the times of Cortes the Indians 

 quilted armor of cotton, which was proof 

 against arrows. 



To this day cotton is cultivated with 

 profit in many parts of the country. In 

 the Laguna region it is perennial and does 

 not require to be planted oftener than 

 once in ten years. Some of the largest 

 cotton factories in the world are to be 

 found in Mexico. The great Rio Blanco 

 mills, in Orizaba, rank with the best in 

 England and America. 



REMARKABLE MEXICAN PLANTS 



Mexico probably has a greater range 

 of remarkable vegetation than any other 

 country in the world. The parrot fruit 

 tree produces an odd-shaped fruit, bear- 

 ing a close resemblance to green parra- 

 keets. Evidently mindful of this strik- 

 ing resemblance, when the parrakeet is 



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