HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



101 



upper part of the body, and white upon the under part. 

 It ftings with its tail, which is hard and poifonous. The 

 Ocuiliztac is a black marfh-worm, which becomes white 

 on being roafled. All thefe infers were eaten by the 

 ancient Mexicans. 



Laftly, to omit other infeas the very names of which 

 would fill an immenfe catalogue, I fliall conclude this ac- 

 count with a kind of zoophytes, or animal plants, which 

 I faw in the year 1 751, in a houfein the country, about 

 ten miles from Angelopoli, towards the fouth-eaft. 

 Thefe were three or four inches long, and had four very 

 flender feet, and two antennae, ; but their body was no- 

 thing more than the fibres of the leaves, of the fame 

 fliape, fize, and colour with thofe of the other leaves of 

 the trees upon which thefe infers were found. Her- 

 nandez mentions them by the name of QuauhmecatI ; 

 ' and Gemelli defcribes another fomewhat fimilar which 

 was found in the neighbourhood of Manila (k^. 



The flight account we have already given of the natu- 

 ral hiftory of Anahuac, may ferve to fliew the differences 

 that take place in the hot, the cold, and the temperate 

 countries, of which that vaft kingdom is compofed. Na- 

 ture in the hot countries is more profufe, and in the cold 

 and temperate more mild. In the former, the hills 

 abound more in minerals and fprings, the valleys are more 

 delightful, and the woods are thicker. There we meet 

 with plants more ufeful for the fupport of life (/). Trees 



of 



(i^) I am aware that modern naturalifts feldom apply the name of -zoophytes^ 

 unlefsto certain marine, bodies, which, with the appearance of vegetables, arc 

 really of the nature of animals; but I give it to thofe terreflrial infe(9:s, becaufc 

 it fcems with as much, if not more propriety applicable to them than to the 

 marine bodies. In my Natural Philofophy, I think I have given a very proba- 

 ble explanation of the operation of nature in the produdlion of fuch infe(Sls. 



(/) It is true, that generally neither corn grows there, nor many of the Eu- 

 ropean 



