June 27, 1389. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
523 
apparently about 1300° in the sun. The change was so sudden and so 
great that when I alighted at the Depot I half felt as if I had been 
dreaming, and was still in the land of visions. The sudden change is 
probably due to the effect of radiation of heat from the hills around, 
added to the protection they afford from wind. The houses here, as in 
all the cities in Northern Mexico, consist of one storey only, the 
rooms and offices being built round a central square or oblong court¬ 
yard, with more or less pretension to be a garden, generally less. 
Leaving Hermosillo and the railway my next trip was up the. Sonora 
river itself, the bed of which from here to its source forms one of the 
few so-called roads of the district, roads which are utterly at the mercy 
of the weather, a sudden attack of rain being liable to imprison 
travellers between impracticable fords with only a possible option 
between taking to the hills or submitting to Mexican fare of tortillas 
and beans in one of the native villages until it pleases Jupiter Pluvius 
to open the road again. Here as nearly everywhere the hills were 
bristling with the huge Cucumber-like Cacti aforesaid, locally called 
Pitayos ; every chink in the rock had its tenant, and many thousands 
were in view at once. Several species of Acacia (Mesquite) and a 
white ghost-like tree called Palo Blanco, or the White Stick, were inter¬ 
mingled with these Cacti, the Palo Blanco presenting a very curious, 
tortuous, drooping appearance, as if the upper half were dead. This I 
found was really the case owing to a severe frost the previous year, 
which had cut them all halfway down. The pink Verbena of our 
.gardens was a common weed here, as also was wild Tobacco. A small 
yellow (Enotliera or Evening Primrose took the place of our Primula 
morning and evening, and Eschscholtzia californica replaced our Butter¬ 
cups. Agaves, here called Mescal Plants, were plentiful, and every 
now and then donkeys laden with their huge Pine Apple-like roots were 
seen proceeding to the Mescal ranches, where the only spirit of the 
country is distilled. This spirit is very strong and intoxicating, but has 
the reputation of leaving no headache behind it; its taste is inde¬ 
scribable, and requires an apprenticeship before it can be appreciated. 
Three species of CEnothera I found in the district, one of which, 
O. taraxacifolia, is marvellously beautiful in its native habitats, the 
huge snow white flowers, about 4 inches in diameter, forming solid 
clumps a foot across, gleaming like snow heaps in the moonlight, but 
disappearing like all the family soon after sunrise. All three species were 
-of the same habit, and foliage— i.e., a la Dandelion. The specific name 
of the largest, taraxacifolia, may do for all three. Some of the Acacias 
here (Mesquite) bore huge pendent bunches of two sorts of Mistletoe, 
both quite different from ours, the leaves being almost entirely aborted, 
and the plants consisting solely of long pendulous jointed stalks and 
minute blossoms. I was told by one of the Mexicans that if these were 
dried and smoked as cigarettes, two or three whiffs sufficing, as the active 
principle was very strong, a powerful remedy was afforded for coughs. 
While camping out by the river I explored some rocks close by, and 
found a species of Lastrea, not unlike L. thelypteris, but of different 
habit of growth, possibly L. nova boracense. 
During the latter part of my stay in Mexico the season had suffi¬ 
ciently advanced for many of the Yucca and Cactus tribes to be in 
blossom, and I can hardly imagine a finer sight than I had on one of my 
trips over the hills, when I came across a huge Yucca with some five or 
six immense spikes of its pure white Lily-like blooms just in perfection. 
There must have been several hundred blossoms, forming a dense bunch 
•of white, some 4 feet high by 2 through. When I came up it was in 
absolute perfection, and constituted a really regal bouquet. 
The common Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia), as large as a fair sized 
Rhododendron, and smothered with large pale yellow blossoms, is also 
a sight to be seen. This plant is given a place in orchards for the sake 
of its fruits, and under cultivation assumes the dimensions of a good 
■sized tree, with a trunk a foot or more in diameter. It is curious in 
this case tu see the transmutation of the first flat oval leaf or leaves 
into a thick wooden trunk. The skeletons of these old leaves are very 
beautiful in their lace-like design, and might, I think, be utilised well in 
•cabinet work. It is noteworthy that these cultivated plants are nearly 
devoid of thorns, entirely so of the obvious large ones. As a curious con¬ 
trast in habit of growth I may mention here that on my return journey I 
stopped at Little Bock, a city in Texas, for a few hours, and found 
there the Prickly Pear Cactus reduced to a few inches in height, 
■quite decumbent, very prickly, and forming large flat masses, 5 or 
6 feet across, in the grass of the fields, from which at a small distance 
it could hardly be discriminated. 
The Giant Cactus, Cereus giganteus, w r hich sometimes reaches, I am 
told, 60 feet in height, I only saw in one place, which afforded a s : ngular 
instance of restricted locality. I was shown some photographs of a 
certain mine which I was desired to visit, and in these photos I clearly 
recognised in the hills several specimens of this Cactus which I had 
vainly sought in my journey hitherto. The mines were some thirty miles 
distant across a breakneck country, only traversable on horseback, and 
I need hardly say that all the way I was on the look out for the Cacti 
in question, locally named Saguaros, yet singular to relate I found when 
I arrived at the mine that they were entirely confined in that region to 
the one hillside, where possibly some thirty or forty were scattered. On 
the way the country round for many miles could be seen, but here and 
there only were they to be found, yet the general conditions seemed 
identical all about. The hill in question, however, was distinguished 
from the others by containing a network of silver lead veins, which 
suggests the probability of the restriction of the Cactus being due to 
the existence solely in this spot of some essential elements in the soil. 
Some day the botanist may help the miner. 
The geological conformation of Sonora is very peculiar—a succession 
of low table lands, relieved on the one hand by high serrated mountain 
ranges, with here and there a higher table land, forming a continuous 
flat-topped hill of considerable extent and height. The lower table lands 
or mesas have been cut by the torrential rains peculiar to this region in 
July and August into innumerable isolated minor flat-topped hills and 
level ridge3, while the valleys or canons are of all widths, and assume 
all aspects, from wide fertile alluvial plains to narrow precipitous rock- 
bound chasms. The roads, as I have said, lie in dry weather along these 
valleys and up the stream beds. In the main rivers there are generally 
some pretensions to a road, varied, however, by fords. I counted seventy- 
six of these fords in one day’s journey. Travelling on horseback is 
necessarily done at a walk, and therefore afEords a fine opportunity for 
studying the wayside flora, but naturally in a strange land many of 
the common flowers are unknown, and even their family only can be 
guessed at by any but good all-round botanists, which I do not pretend 
to be. I plead this for my excuse in mentioning really only a tithe of the 
flowers I saw and admired, but to which, alas 1 1 lacked a proper introduc¬ 
tion. The animals and reptiles of the district are hardly numerous either 
in species or individually. Of rattlesnakes and grass snakes I only came 
across three of the former and one of the latter, represented only by a 
wriggling gleam of light, too far off for examination. Several species of 
lizards were common, some of a beautiful silver grey, and over a foot 
long, and one comical little fellow, about 9 inches long, was constantly 
running out of the road, and, perching on a stone, wagged his long 
pointed tail over his back just like a dog. A smaller species with a blue 
belly I was seriously warned against as venomous. I had heard the 
miners speak of a large sluggish lizard, a la alligator, called by them 
the Healey Monster, as it was common in the Healey Biver. The bite of 
this, I was assured by several, was surely fatal, and that, moreover, it 
would blow its poison at anyone from a distance of many feet. This 
sounded a little fabulous, but I think there is something in the 
bite. One Saturday a fine specimen of this lizard was brought 
down by a miner who had stunned it—killed it, he thought with 
a stick. This measured 17| inches long, was of a brilliant salmon and 
black, in a tortuous, stripy pattern, and undoubtedly possessed two 
poison fangs in the upper jaw, just like a snake. In a few hours he 
seemed to recover, and I was thus enabled to sketch him as he lived. 
Another was killed two days later, so they cannot be very rare. W ild 
pigs, mountain lions (kumas), wild cats, deer, wolves, and bears are 
occasionally met with in the hills, and oft in the stilly night 
“ The skunk perfumes the ambient air 
With perfume neither rich nor rare, 
And when the miner sees him nigh, 
He never stays to say good-bye, 
But hooks it then and there.” 
The skunk is a pretty animal, like a small black and white fox ; indeed; 
its Spanish name, Zorilla, means simply a little fox, but it is so conscious 
of its own strength, i.e., olfactorily, that it will not get out of the way if 
met in the road, but simply defies you, and the Americans so recognise its 
power that if one enters a mining camp all the men “absquatulate’ at 
once, having more respect for its almighty scent than even for the 
almighty dollar. The birds are numerous, and I saw many specimens of 
the brilliant scarlet cardinal. It is too far north for parrots, but I saw a 
row of humming birds perched one day on a telegraph wire. Scorpions 
were pretty numerous, and tarantulas and centipedes by no means rare. 
On the return journey, passing through Texas, at one of the stations 
the train was besieged by a lot of children selling Cacti and Resurrection 
Plants (Selaginella lepidophylla). These latter they collect on the 
sandy plains, where apparently during the dry season they roll about 
and are literally baked, but when the wet weather sets in they at once 
