592  A  Botanical  Excursion  to  Mexico.    { ANoVJemb«?w™* 
part  of  the  property  of  Cortez.  Here  are  sold  all  manner  of  fruits 
and  vegetables:  apples,  peaches,  pears,  pomegranates,  mammees, 
figs,  bananas,  tunas,  quinces,  tomatoes,  corn,  beans  and  other  agri- 
cultural products.  The  meat  and  poultry  stalls  are  equally  import- 
ant ;  but  it  is  to  the  sellers  of  herbs  that  a  druggist  would  turn  with 
most  interest. 
An  old  Indian  woman,  knitting  or  sewing,  occupies  a  seat  in  an 
enclosed  stall,  surrounded  on  all  sides  by  dried  herbs  and  medicinal 
plants.  For  a  small  sum  of  money,  she  will  prescribe  for  all  the 
ailments  to  which  flesh  is  heir,  drawing  upon  her  supplies  of  drugs 
hanging  about  the  stall.  These  substances  are  compounded  into 
medicine  according  to  her  directions,  and  it  seems  that  the  peons 
have  faith  in  her  skill,  for  numbers  of  them  were  observed  around 
the  stall  asking  medical  advice.  Casually,  while  inspecting  the 
market,  hasty  notes  were  made  of  a  few  of  the  remedies  which  com- 
posed her  stock  of  drugs.  There  were  panicles  of  Sambucus  Mexi- 
cana,  dried  flowers  of  Datura  arborea,  dried  plants  of  Achillea  milli- 
folia,  a  few  Mammillarias,  tops  of  Datura  with  stems  and  pods,  dried 
gourds,  bunches  of  unknown  herbs  wrapped  in  corn-husk,  bunches 
of  the  pepper  tree  (Schinus  molle),  bunches  of  dried  roots,  sea  beans 
(Mucuna),  hoofs  of  a  deer,  ears  of  a  donkey  dried,  stuffed  birds,  car- 
apace of  a  turtle,  dried  alligator  with  skin  removed,  armadillo  skins, 
and  other  remedies  too  numerous  to  mention.  I  returned  again 
and  again  to  this  market,  and  always  found  it  a  source  of  informa- 
tion and  amusement. 
Mexico  is  a  very  rich  and  virgin  field  for  ecological  study,  and  is 
yet  an  unworked  field.  Similar  observations  on  other  regions  have 
been  made  by  Dr.  Eugene  Warming,  of  the  University  of  Copen- 
hagen, several  years  ago  in  Venezuela,  at  Lagoa  Santa;  by  Dr.  Scott, 
who  explored  the  Cape  region  of  South  Africa  in  the  Kalahari 
desert ;  by  Professor  Stahl,  in  Java,  and  last  year  in  Mexico,  and  by 
Dr.  Trelease,  of  the  Missouri  Botanical  Garden,  on  the  Yuccas  of 
the  southwestern  United  States  and  northern  Mexico. 
University  of  Pennsylvania. 
October,  1896. 
Lucium  is  the  name  given  to  a  supposed  new  element  found  by  P.  Barriere 
in  monazite  sand.  It  belongs  in  the  cerium,  lanthanum  and  didymium 
group.    Atomic  weight,  104. 
