522 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ J line 27, 1889. 
be pardoned for taking up your time with the notes I made during a 
recent journey to northern Mexico, via New York. Leaving England 
early in January, and arriving in New York only about a week later, 
nothing was to be expected there more than a possibly severer phase of 
winter. One is, however, struck at once by an absolute absence of all 
greenness in the woods fvhich here and there fringe the Hudson river. 
Here in Great Britain, even in the depth of winter, the Hollies, Ivies, 
and other evergreen growths contribute a certain amount of verdure to 
the landscape. In the American woods, however, on my line of route 
this feature was entirely absent, and the winter landscape is one of 
apparent death, the gaunt bare trunks and branches being absolutely 
unrelieved by any signs of life. This, I was informed, was due to the 
far greater intensity of the winters there, and it seems feasible that, 
on the principle of the survival of the fittest, trees minus leaves 
would have a better chance—say in a blizzard—than those having 
anything in the shape of foliage. I noticed that even the few Conifers 
made hardly any show, being brown and thin in foliage. In New York 
the winter had been abnormally mild, but going up the Hudson the 
river gradually assumed a more and more arctic appearance, until near 
Albany it was quite covered with floes and hummocks of ice, though 
very little snow was visible until we reached Buffalo, near Niagara, 
where some inches were lying. Though so near the Falls I decided to 
postpone a visit until my return. Stopping an hour or so in Chicago, 
and walking up the nearest principal street to the Depot, State Street, I 
was first struck by the enormous quantity of Bananas on sale in the 
streets. These were much larger than those usually sold here. I also 
noticed a red variety. So far I had noticed no Ferns, but some very 
fine specimens of Maidenhair were exhibited growing in one of the 
shop windows, where six handsomely dressed girls were standing comb¬ 
ing their luxuriant locks, which extended in every case to their feet, 
advertising thus a celebrated hair restorer. Passers-by were invited to walk 
in and have a chat with these ladies as to “ how it was done,” but my 
native modesty prevented me from inspecting more closely these speci¬ 
mens of the true Capillus-Veneris. It struck me that this variety must 
be pretty hardy to stand the exposure they did. From Chicago onwards 
for some 1000 miles or so little that is botanically noteworthy is observ¬ 
able from the train, possibly partly due to the season of the year, but 
mainly to the flat monotonous nature of the country, the prairies ex¬ 
tending in all directions flat as ocean itself. The next main point was 
Kansas city—forty-three hours without a break—a great centre of the 
pork trade, apropos of which a gentleman in the train told me the 
following anecdote :—An expert in the pork trade was being conducted 
over one of the factories here, where a pig can be driven alive, into one 
end of a machine and five minutes later emerge as sausages. The 
object in this business is of course to avoid all waste and utilise every 
by-product, and in this special factory it was fondly assumed that per¬ 
fection had been obtained in this respect and absolutely nothing lost. 
The gentleman, however, conducting the expert was surprised at a certain 
reserve in his verdict on this point. Pressing for an explanation of what 
more could possibly be done, he received for reply, “ Well, I reckon you do 
the thing pretty considerable slick, but there are two by-products you 
don’t use worth a cent.” “Two by-products,” said his conductor, “ you 
surprise me, I thought we had used everything.” “ No, you ain’t; first 
of all you waste the squeal entirely, and you’ve quite forgotten to use 
up the stink.” 
A “ cold snap ” that night afforded me the curious experience of a 
mimic snowstorm in the vestibule connecting the carriages where the 
draught of cold external air blowing through the chinks constantly 
formed a deposit of fine snow on the floor by condensing the moisture 
of the warmer air inside. The black porter had to be continually 
sweeping it up. In the lavatory, even inside, I nearly “ burnt ” my 
fingers through touching some cold iron near the window. 
On the fourth day the green prairies began to be transformed into 
sandy desert plains dotted with Yuccas of sundry species, with here 
and there a solitary small Cactus, indicating a decided approach 
to the south, though icicles were hanging in profusion round 
the watertanks at every depot, and snow was lying in many places. 
Arrived at Nogales, a small town on the frontier of Arizona, Mexico, 
where I had to stay some days, I devoted my spare time to exploring 
the country round in search of Ferns, but at first sight despaired in 
toto of seeing any of the family in so apparently arid and scorched a 
country. The landscape consists of a constant succession of low rolling 
hills exactly resembling heaps of reddish road metal, dotted here and 
there monotonously with Yuccas and Agaves sticking up like huge 
spherical bunches of radiating bayonets ; beyond these hills were 
visible ranges of mountains some 4000 to G000 feet high, equally bare 
and unpromising. On my first walk, however, I was agreeably un* 
deceived, for the first canon or valley I turned into between two of the 
small hills yielded several very beautiful species of Ferns, among them 
some Cheilanthes and silvery Nothochlasnas, which I found growing 
freely in the crevices of the rocks, and though small evidently quite at 
home. One of the most striking things to me was the fact that I found 
associated here, and thriving in each other’s society, Ferns and Cacti, 
the representatives of inhabitants of at once the most humid and shady 
and the most arid and sunny habitats, and what was equally strange to 
me was that while all the species would be relegated here to a warm 
greenhouse and carefully protected from a single trace of frost, not 
only was snow lying in the chinks of the rock, but icicles 5 feet long 
were depending from the tank in the depot, and I was credibly informed, 
and could from my own sensations easily believe it, that 20° of frost had 
been registered there this winter. 
In connection with this I should mention that Nogales stands 4000 
feet above sea level. Fern-hunting here is not without adventures. 
While going through a tuft of Cheilanthes on one side of a huge rock 
my companion informed me that there was a better specimen on his 
side, but that I had better come down and not get over the rock as I 
might have done, as I should get a better view that way. I followed 
his advice, and found the specimen to be a fine large rattlesnake bask¬ 
ing on the rock and fast asleep. A revolver bullet through the neck 
closed his career somewhat unexpectedly, as he simply slid down all 
coiled as he was and without giving us the music of his rattle at all. 
This find was quite a surprise, as they are usually dormant until March 
or April, and this was the end of January only. Rambling over the hills, 
some very beautiful Cacti were visible here and there in the more ex¬ 
posed situations. Some consisted of seven or eight perfectly round balls 
about G inches in diameter and heaped together; others were oblong 
and solitary with a pink ring near the apex ; others were very much 
flattened and deeply corrugated, but all alike bristled with thorns. 
The Opuntias or Prickly Pears were represented by two species—on& 
with long formidable looking thorns, the other apparently almost 
devoid, but only apparently, for, like many of their brethren, besides 
these large and obvious weapons of defence, every bud produces 
numberless very minute thorns or spicules which come off on the 
slightest touch, and are only felt when they have got well beneath the 
skin, perhaps half an hour after one fondly imagines the foe is left 
behind. 
On the morning of January 30th I was awakened suddenly and no 
little alarmed by a tremendous popping and banging all over the town, 
but jumping up I found at once that it was nothing worse than the 
explosion of an infinity of crackers, which the Chinese were letting off 
in heaps in front of their shops to celebrate their New Year’s Day. 
Pursuing my Fern hunts I was gratified by finding that very pretty 
Fern Pteris ternifolia, of which two forms exist there—one with obtuse 
oval pinnules, the other with sharply pointed narrow ones, P. orni- 
thopus. A fine crenate pinnate Nothochlaena, very much resembling 
in habit and growth our Ceterach officinarum, was also found. From 
this district I brought home fronds of Nothochlasna rufa, N. dealbata, 
N. Newberyi, N. sinuafa, Gymnogramma hispida, Pteris ternifolia, 
P. ornithopus var. brachyptera, Pellasa marginata, P. pulchella, Chei¬ 
lanthes elegans, and C. Eatoni (!). The trees of the locality are 
chiefly Walnut and Black Oak. On the former I observed a consider¬ 
able quantity of Mistletoe not very dissimilar to ours, but with much 
shorter and wider leaves. 
The next place I visited was Hermosillo, some 170 miles further 
south, and at a considerably lower elevation ; the main part of my 
journey was at night, but in the morning I found the train slowly, very 
slowly, plodding along through a plain, bounded at some distance by a 
line of hiPs of decent height. The plain now was bristling with thorny 
vegetation of many species, but mainly Cacti, which formed huge 
clumps 10 to 12 feet high, intermingled with confused spiky masses of 
other species, which seemed to replace the Brambles of this country, 
while the larger ones of the Cereus species took the place of trees ; 
this growth continued until within about half a mile from Hermosillo, 
where the hills closed in, dotted all over with much larger specimens of 
the Cereus tribe, now some 15 to 20 feet high, each plant resembling 
nothing so much as some thirty or forty immense corrugated Cucum¬ 
bers, springing perpendicularly from one point. Suddenly, however, as 
we entered the suburbs of Hermosillo we seemed to plunge at one leap 
into the tropics; groves of tall Palm trees were seen surrounded by a 
luxurious growth of Bamboos and Castor Oil Plants, mingled with 
Orange groves, and all basking in a temperature in the first week in 
February of about 90° in the shade, and by contrast with Nogales 
