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Show HISTORY OF ME .XICO. BooK their colours, or the agreeablenefs of their odour. The Camote is ~ of a moft bea,utiful purple; and the Granadillo, a dark-red colour; but the Palo gateado, Caoba, and Tzopiloql;lahuitl or wood of Zopi lot, are ftill more admirable. The hardnefs Gf the Guayacan is well known in Europe; the Jabin has the fame property in no lefs a degree. The aloe-wood of Mixteca, although different from the true ~galloco of the Eall:, according to the defcription given of it by Garzia dell'Orto (p) and other authors, is however, not lefs to be ~il:eemed for its delightful odour, ~fpecially when it is freil1 cut. There is alfo in that country, a tree whofe wood is precious, but its nature is fo malignant as to occafion a (welling in the fcrotum of any one who manages it jndifcreetly when freil1 cut. -The name which the Michuacans give it (which I do not at prefent remember) expreifes diftinetly that noxious effect. I have never been a witnefs of this faCt, nor have I feen the tree; but I learnt it when I was in Michuacan, from refp.eCl:able authority. Hernandez, in his Natural Hiil:ory, defcribes about one hundred fpecies of tree&; but having, as we before mentioned, confecrated his ftudy to the medicinal plants, he omits the greater part of thofe which that fertile foil produces, and in . partiaular thofe which are mofl: c,onfiderablc for their fize, and valued for their wood. There arc ~fo ~rees, in height. and l~rgenefs fo prodigious, they are not at all mfcnor to tho~e wh1ch Plmy boafts to be the miracles of nature. Acofta makes mention of a cedar, which was in Atlacuechahuayan·. a place nine miles diftant from Antequera or Oaxaca, the circum~ f~rence of whofe trunk was fixteen fathoms, that is more than eighty-two feet of Paris; and I have feen in a houfe in the coun,try a· ~earn, on~ hundred and tweqty Caftilian feet, or .one htmdred and .feven Panfian feet long. In the capital, and other cities there are very large tables of c~dar to be feen, confiil:ing of .one fingle piece. · In the valley of A~ltxo there is il:i11 exifting a very ancient firtree (q), fo large, that mto a cavity of its trunk which was occafioned by· (p) Storia dei. Semplici, Aromati, &c. della India Orientale. . COl~~;r T~:~~ei:tcan name of this tree is, Ah\;lchuctl; and the common Spania-rd of that is Sa vi~, in whi~h ~~~e~u~tc j b~lt thofe who would fpcak in Callilian caH it Sabino, that one but a fir y ;ue ecelved i for the Ahuehuetl, though very like to Sa1in is not fir ~f Atlixco 'inas Hernandez dcmonfrratea, in lib. iii. cap. 66, of his Nat. Hifr. I faw the idea of ita bignefs~y way through that city, ill 1'756, but not near enough to form a jull: lightning, ' H I s. T 0 R Y 0 F M E X. I C 0. lightning, fourteen men on horfeback could conveniently enter. · We are given a fiill fironger idea of its capacity from a tefiimony even fo refpectable as his Excellency D. F. Lorenzana, formerly Archbi! hop of Mexico,. now of Toledo. This Prelate, in the annotations which he made on the letters of Cortez, to Charles Vth. and printed in Mexico, in 1770, attefts that having. gone himfelf, in company with the Archbi!hop of Guatemala and the Bi!hop of At1gelopoli, to view that celebrated tree, he made one hundred young lads enter its trunk. The Ceibas, which I faw in the maritime province of Xicayan, may be compared with this famous fir. The largenefs of thc:fe trees is proportioned to their prodigious elevation, and they afford a moft delightful profpeCt at the time they are adorned with new leaves a,nd loaded with fruit, in which there is inclofed a parti ular fpecies of white, fine, and mofi delicate cotton. This might be, and actually has been made into webs as foft and delicate, and p.:rhaps· more fo, than filk (r); but it is . toildome to fpin, on account of the fmallnefs of the threads, and the profit does not requite the labour, the web not being lall:ing. Some ufe it for pillows and mat ... traffes which have the iingular property of [welling enormou1ly when expoft to the fun. Amongft the great many trees worthy of notice for their peculiarities, which I am however obliged to look over, I cannot omit a certain fpeci s of wood-fig, whi h grows in the country of the Cohuixcas and in other pbces of the kingdom. It is a lofty, grofs, thick tree, fimilar in leaves and fruit to the common fig. From its branches, which extend horizontally, fpring certain filaments which taking their direCtion towards the earth increafe and grow till they reach it; ftrike root and form fo many new trunks, that from one fingle fig, a whole wood may be generated. The fruit of thi:; tree is altogether ·ufelefs, but its timber is cad (s). In ( r ) De Bomare fay s, that the 1\fri c~ n s m~ke of the thread of the Ceiba, the veget~ ble taflccy, which is fo fcarcc, and fo much efteemed in Europe. I do not wonder at rhe fcarcity of fu ch cloth, con!idering the difficulty of making it. The narnc Ceiba j3 taken, li lll! many others, from the language which was fpoke in the ifland Haiti, or San Domingo. The Mcxi· cans call it, P o1 hot!; and many Spania rds Pochott'. Jn Africa it h ,\~ the:: uame of Benten. The Cciba, fays the nbove author, is highel' th an 'all the trees hithe-rto known. (s) 1\. Perc1. de Ribas makes mention of this fingul n.r fig, in his Hiftory of the Mi!lions, from Cinal0a; a11d Boman: in his DiCtionary, uudcr the names of Figuier des Indes, Grttnde> . Fi"'Ulcl': h 7 jl .B..O__O_K_ .l ,. l |