SIX MONTHS IN MEXICO. 181 



great perfection here. I have brought models 

 of its highly curious fruit, made from the liv- 

 ing plants, as well as several species of the 

 extraordinary cacti, mostly natives of Mexico, 

 with which the gardens abound. 



Numbers of birds frequent this delightful 

 spot, and from being perfectly undisturbed 

 are very tame. On the 3rd of April, I saw 

 the first humming bird since I had left Ja- 

 maica ; in a month afterwards they were in 

 great plenty, and the examination of them, in 

 all their evolutions, added much to the plea- 

 sures of this establishment, which, I regret to 

 say, was about to be discontinued, the pension 

 of the professor being stopped : such were the 

 exigencies of the state, that even the trifling 

 salary of the venerable little Italian curator was 

 then unpaid. I procured from the garden the 

 seeds of such plants, fruits, &c. as were ripe 

 at the time I left the city, as well as of what 

 appeared to me the most beautiful or curious 



