382 Report on the jwogress of the Horticultural Society, 



" had not before, but upon the whole this neighbourhood is not 

 " so promising as I expected, the same barrenness prevailing 

 " here before the rainy season as at Guanaxuato. The moun- 

 " tains, which are at a distance of about ten miles, I have not yet 

 " visited ; but, having already gone over the greatest part of the 

 " same ridge near Guanaxuato, I do not expect to find much 

 " variety there." 



No. 6. — Leon, May 18th, 1837. — " I am getting together a few 

 " plants of an Orchidacea, the only species which I found in the 

 " mountains here, growing on Oaks at least 8000 feet above the 

 " sea, where it occasionally freezes, the flower is of a beautiful 

 " pink, 6 inches in diameter.* Owing to the disturbed state of 

 " this neighbourhood (the late pronouncement of San Louis Potozi, 

 " and attack upon the money-carrier), I do not like to run the risk 

 " of sending them off now, but I shall do so when it becomes a 

 " little quiet, along with half of the seeds that I have collected, and 

 " send the other half by a different opportunity." 



No. 7.— Lagos, June 19th, 1837.— "Your letter of the 14th 

 " March I received on the 31st of May last, and I am very happy 

 " to learn that the Orchidaceae collected at Zaquapam arrived 

 " safely, and that many new ones have been recognized among 

 " them. I only regret that my instructions did not permit me to 

 " make a stay of some months in that country so rich in plants, 

 " where I might have been enabled to collect the vegetable pro- 

 " ductions from the beginning of the Tierra templada to the Snow 

 " line even, visiting each climate in its proper season, without 

 " absenting myself much from either. Here it is a real misery 

 " to go about collecting ; I sometimes am riding about for two days 

 " together in a heat of from 88 — 90° Fahr. in the shade, without 

 " often finding more than a single plant in flower. The Tierra fria, 

 " which is a little more productive, is here only on the highest 



* Lselia majalis, Lindl. 



