HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



23 



However plentiful and rich the mineral kingdom of 

 Mexico may be, the vegetable kingdom is ftill more va- 

 rious and abundant. The celebrated Dr. Hernandez, 

 the Pliny of New Spain, defcribes in his Natural Hiftory, 

 about twelve hundred plants, natives of that country ; 

 but his defcription, although large, being confined to 

 medicinal plants, has hardly comprifed one part of what 

 provident nature has produced there for the benefit of 

 mortals. Of the medicinal plants we fhould give but an 

 impcrfe61: account if we applied to the medicine of the 

 Mexicans. With regard to the other clafles of vege- 

 tables, fome are efteemed for their flowers, fome for their 

 fruit, fome for their leaves, fome for their root, fome 

 for their trunk or their wood, and others for their gum, 

 refin, oil, or juice C^J* Among the many flowers 

 which embellifh the meads and adorn the gardens of the 

 Mexicans, there are fome worthy to be mentioned, ei- 

 ther from the Angular beauty of their colours, the ex- 

 quifite fragrance which they exhale, or the extraordina- 

 rinefs of their form. 



The Floripiindio which, on account of its fize, merits 

 the firft: mention, is a beautiful white odoriferous flower, 

 monopetalous, or confifting of one leaf, but fo large, 

 in length it is full more than eight inches, and its diame- 

 ter in the upper part three or four. Many hang toge- 

 ther from the branches like bells, but not entirely round 

 as their corolla (r)^ has five or fix angles equidifl:ant 

 from each other. Thefe flowers are produced by a pretty 



little 



mare has cited, that the ohfidiana^ of which the ancients made their vafa murinaj 

 which were fo much efteemed, was entirely fimilar to this ftone. 



(q) We have adopted this though impcrfecSl divifion of plants, as it* appears 

 the moft fuitable and adapted to the plan of our hiftory. 



(r) The coloured leaves of which the flower is compofcd are called pdals by 

 Fabio Colonna, and corolla by Linnaeus, to diftinguifh them from the real leaves. 



