House and Garden 
anium, golden masses 
of girasole, or sun¬ 
flower, grow side by 
side with the beautif ul 
“ floripondio,” only 
raised in hot-houses 
in Europe, and the 
magnificent “trompe- 
tilla” creeper, which 
climbs to the top of 
the highest trees and 
tosses its flaunting 
scarlet cups against 
the blue sky. The 
poinsettia—in Span¬ 
ish the Flor de Noche 
Buena, or Christmas 
flower,—is here a tree 
rather than a plant, 
and the pomegranate and the fig-tree are 
seen together with clumps of pale, fluffy- 
headed pampas grass or with the rich clusters 
of berries of the castor-oil tree. 
It is this combination of the vegetation of 
the tropical and the temperate climes which 
is one of the fascinations of the hanging gar¬ 
den of Chapultepec. And when the garden 
has been duly admired, no one will deny that 
the view over the plain of Anahuac which is 
to be obtained from the terrace, is one of the 
finest in the world. Chapultepec is the 
BANANA TREES IN THE ALAMEDA GARDENS 
reputed site of the palace of Montezuma, 
who is said to have laid out tropical gardens 
in the grounds at its base with fresh and salt 
water pools for wild fowl and fish and to 
have planted with his own hands the gigantic 
cypress which now bears his name. The city, 
with its many domes, the gleam of the 
distant lake, the broad plain surrounded by 
a girdle of purple mountain, arrest the atten¬ 
tion in turn; then, if it is evening—and the 
evening hour is a most fascinating one at 
Chapultepec—a faint pink flush catches the 
snowy tops of Popo¬ 
catepetl and Ixtacci- 
huatl, generally free of 
clouds towards sunset. 
The pink flush pales 
and is succeeded by a 
note of pure white 
with a tinge of blue, 
infinitely far off' and 
lonely, as the brief 
twilight fades and the 
Castle and its roman¬ 
tic surroundings are 
quickly wrapped in 
the shadow of ap¬ 
proaching night. We 
turn away with an 
ever deepening sense 
of wonder at the 
countless visions of 
CYPRESS TREES IN THE PARK OF CHAPULTEPEC 
beauty in Mexico. 
G5 
