9} 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
THE ALAMEDA— CENTRAL FOUNTAIN. 
in these places and they have since been known is 
the Jardines de Profesa and Guardiola respec- 
tively. 
The visitor emerges from the Puente de San 
Francisco upon a broad street known as the 
Avenida Juarez running along the southern 
side of the Alameda. But the southern side of 
the avenue is known, in its several blocks, as Cor- 
pus Christi, Calvario arid Hospicio de Pobres 
Streets. 
Without opening the archeological questions as 
to the purposes to which the site was devoted by 
the Aztec occupants of Tenochtitlan ; whether it 
was a Tianquis or market, or whether the Aztecs 
had use for a market, (the present writer is of the 
opinion that, previous to the conquest, the site 
was wholly submerged by the waters of the lake 
that surrounded the ancient pueblo,) the history of 
the Alameda begins with the year 1592, when the 
viceroy Velasco appropriated the eastern half of 
what is now the Alameda, as a public park, en- 
closed it within walls, built fountains and planted 
cottonwood trees and flowers therein. The ground 
west of it was afterwards slowly reclaimed from the 
marshes,, and thereon was erected the Brasero or 
Quemadero, (burning place,) where the victims of 
the Inquisition were reduced to ashes to be scat- 
tered upon the marshes beyond. The Quemadero 
was removed by the Viceroy, the Marquis of Croix, 
in 1770 and the land it occupied was added to the 
Alameda, thus establishing its present dimensions, 
which include between twenty and twenty-five 
acres. 
The eccentric, but public spirited reformer, the 
Viceroy the Conde de Revillagigedo, in 1791 built 
a wooden fence around this enlarged Alameda. 
And in 1822 the discarded iron gates from the 
glorieta of the plaza Mayor were used to adorn it, 
and a ditch or acequia surrounded it. It was quite 
suburban at this time, and was 
infested at night with footpads 
and assassins. 
Despite this past history, the 
Alameda as we now see it really 
dates from the time of the Maxil- 
milian regime. His landscape 
gardener was responsible for the 
scheme of walks and garden plats 
adopted, and for the eucal>ptus, 
ash and semi tropcal trees inter- 
spersed with the original cotton- 
woods. It was after their designs 
that the rondels, carved stone 
seats, basins and fountains were 
erected. It was the work of more 
recent artists of less taste, to 
paint this stone work in glaring colors. Improve- 
ments in the Alameda have been going on of late 
years. Mexico is preeminently a musical city, and 
a band stand is a necessary feature of every place 
of recreation. Needless to say, therefore, that the 
Alameda is provided with its band stand. 
The general scheme of the Alameda includes 
wide paths intersecting the ground from north to 
south and from east to west, and diagonally from 
corner to corner. The result combines the formal- 
ity necessary to convenience of use for a pleasure 
ground now in the heart of a great city, with the 
sense of quiet and seclusion in a much frequented 
place. 
It is the street of Hombres Illustres that runs 
along the northern side of the Alameda. It fol- 
lows the line of the ancient causeway over which 
Cortez fought his way on the famous Noche Triste. 
On the opposite side, a recess between two churches 
has been improved by a garden and adorned by a 
statue of Morelos, a revolutionary hero, who has 
given his name to this plazuela or Jardin. 
While the Plaza Mayor is preeminently the park 
of the people, the Alameda is by common consent 
tacitly reserved for the recreation ground of the 
more aristocratic classes of Mexican society. 
- A. H. N. 
The sweet pea, which has become a very popular 
flower, was first cultivated in Sicily abouut the year 
1700, and of the four original varieties two came from 
Ceylon. The time to plant the sweet pea is as soon in 
the spring as the soil can be turned without clogging, 
and that usually comes early in March. 
* * * 
At a meeting of the British Royal Botanic society it 
was stated that several of the streets of Basingstoke, 
England, had had to be repaved owing to the flagstones 
having been forced out of position by an undergrowth 
of fungi. 
