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' of Mexico are settled contiguous to them.

THE MEXICAN CENTRAL RAILWAY
COMPANY, LIMIT ED

ee

CALLS ATTENTION TO THE FACT, THAT:

IT IS THE ONLY Standard Guage Route from the United States
Frontier to Mexico City.

IT IS THE ONLY Line-in Mexico that can offer the Traveling Public
the conveniences and comforts of Standard Guage Pullman Drawing Room
Sleepers, lighted by Pintsch Gas.

IT IS THE ONLY line by which you can travel WITHOUT CHANGE
from St. Louis, Mo., to Mexico City.

IT IS THE ONLY line from El Paso, Texas, to Mexico City.

If 1S THE SHORT line from San Francisco and Pacific Coast Points
to Mexico City.

The lines of the Mexican Central Railway pass through 15 of the 27
States of the Republic. Hight million of the thirteen million inhabitants |

The principal mining regions receive their supplies and export their
products over it. Chihuahua, Sierra Mojada Mapimi, Fresnillo, Parral,
Guanacevi, Durango, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Sombrerete, Pachuca, etc.

WHEN YOU TRAVEL FOK Pee GO WHERE BUSINESS IS

There are only five cities of over 35,000 inhabitants in the Republic |

of Mexico that are not reached by the Mexican Central Line. |
The following ten cities are reached only by the Mexican Central
Railway:
Chihuahua 30,098 inhabitants; Parral 16,382; Zacatecas 34,438; Gua- |
najuato 40,580; Leon 63,263; Guadalajara 101,208; Queretaro 38,016; Za- |
mora 12,533; Agu: ascalientes 31, 816; Irapuato 19,640. i
It also reaches the Cities of Torreon 13,845; San Luis Potosi 60,858; |
Tampico (Mexican Gulf Port) 16,313; Celaya 25, 565; Pachuca 31, 487. §
City of Mexico 368,777.
Daily Pullman service beetween St. Louis, Mo., and Mexico City, «also |
between Hl Paso, T'ex., and Mexico City, and vice versa. ;
C. R. HUDSON, a. fF. & Pp. a. J.T. WHALEN, G. w. P. A. §
W.D. MURDOCK; a. a. & p. 4. Mexican Central Ry., 209 House Bldg;
St. Louis, Mo. |}

Mexico City.

28 APR 1937

Sample copy free—please

oS J
> -stibscribe.

The West American Scientist

Vol. XII. No. 73. June,

1902.

Whole No. 114

INTO MEXICO WITH THE EDITOR.

Gleanings from private letters of the
editor-in-chief who is three thousand
miles away, will assist us in a brief
trip into Mexico. ‘There are many
things of interest to be noticed on our
the

speed-loving American is the time the

way. Perhaps first of note to

trip requires. Wight years ago, from
HI] Paso to Mexico City, required four
days. Now we can accomplish the
same in little more than half that time
—two and one-half days.

Outside our car window as we leave
Hi] Paso, we see only grassy plains and
sand hills. Miesquite trees are in leaf
and form the chief verdure of the coun-
try. The Living Rock cactus is found
on the hills in this vicinity, but very
difficult to distinguish as it is so iden-
tical in color with the rocks on which
it SrOWS. | Agaves abound in the moun-
tains, one of these, a pulbous variety,
is especially beautiful.

Further south we pass fields of young
eotton plants. Yuccas are used for
fence posts. Everything is dry—a de's-

ert. In some parts of the trip the mes-

larger still.

quite trees give promise of being in
reality what they are in name—trees.
As we reach the valley of Mexico we
find ourselves in a region of broad cul-
tivated fields, dry,

The train winds around

much like Califor-
nia in aspect.
low hills, up, up. A reservoir of water
with green fields of corn beneath its
influence, and thousands of acres of
maguey fields—a curse to Mexico; stone
walls, tiled roofs, cathedral towns, the
wooden plow, thirteen modern houses
(huts of cast-off corrugated iron), big
hats on barefooted and on sandaled
men, a eucalyptus tree among the cac-
ti; such are some of the sights as the
landscape speeds behind.

Mexico City is reached at last. It
has grown remarkably since a visit
eight years ago and is destined to be
No vacant lots in the city.
Solid stone and other evidences ofgreat
wealth displayed—and of great poverty,
as well. 500,000 people are living here,
it is said. They are people of all sorts.
The free music and plaza promenade in
one of the nearby towns brings them
their best. Among them

all in

some are very pretty, white, barehead-

out

171 The West American Scientist. 172

ed girls in black lace mantillas over
pink dresses, others wear Parisian
hats and shoes, and the children are as
pretty and as prettily dressed as the
average in the United States.

But this trip into Mexico is far more
comfortable than the real thing can be.
In that are many trials to be met and
conquered or endured. There is the
dust. It is very trying at this season
of the year, just before the rains set in.
One night the train encountered a sand
storm and in the morning the beds
were covered with dust and the car
was full of it. Not less trying than the
dust is the heat. Activity of any sort
must be suspended and the time of the
greatest heat spent in the shade of
trees and houses or within doors. Our
Scientist, in a fit of absent-mindedness,
one day, laid two plants and a snail in
the sun, while with true scientifie zeal
he went for something else. When he
returned he found them literally baked.

The condition of the people of Mex-
ico is pitiful. Many of them are both
poor and extremely ignorant. One In-

dian brought his little boy one evening,-

as bright a child as need be found, and
the pride of his father’s. heart. A box
with a dime in it was given to him. He
shook the box as he went and was as
happy in the music of that coin as if
the home he was going to was a palace
instead of a hut of mud and brush.

What a future is before him! His fa-
ther had worked all day for about
thirty cents. He spoke in poor Span-
ish, had evidently never heard of the
postoffice. He was looking wistfuily
toward the United States, but with
neither energy nor knowledge will prob-
ably never reach it. It is pathetic to
see the burdens these men will carry, a
hundred pounds a mile at a time. And
still more pathetic is their patience and
their plaintive voices which are re-
minders of the middle ages.

Established 1884,
THE WEST AMERICAN SCIENTIST.

Published monthly.
Price 10c a copy; $1 a year; $10 for life.
Charles Russell Orcutt, Editor,
Number 365 Twenty-first Street,
San Diego, California, U. 8. A.

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The West American Scientist. 174

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S&G@- Botany of Southera California’ is a
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Review of the Cactacesz

By Charles Russell Orcutt. Original descript-
ions carefully compiled and reprinted, with
synonymy, and bibliographical references as
complete as the author’s library will permit.
Illustrated. Copious excerpts, with fleld and
garden notes. Vol. I is devoted to the species
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An excellent opportunity for the
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17 SEP. 1902

ae

THE MEXIGAN CENTRAL RAILWAY
COMPANY, LIMIT ED

CALLS ATTENTICN TO THE FACT, THAT:

|

IT TS THE ONLY Standard Guage Route from the United States
Frontier to Mexico City.

IT IS THE ONLY Line in Mexico that can offer the Traveling Publie
the conveniences and comforts of Standard Guage Pullman Drawing Room
Sleepers, lighted by Pintsch Gas.

It IS THEONLY line by which you can travel WITHOUT CHANGE
from St. Louis, Mo., to Mexico City.

IT IS THE ONLY line from El Paso, Texas, to Mexico City.

If IS THE SHORT line from San Francisco and Pacific Coast Points
to Mexico City.

The lines of the Mexican Central Railway pass through 15 of the 27
States of the Republic. Hight million of the thirteen million inhabitants
of Mexico are settled contiguous to them. 3

The principal mining regions receive their supplies and export their
products over it. Chihuahua, Sierra Mojada Mapimi, Fresnillo, Parral,
Guanacevi, Durango, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Sombrerete, Pachuca, ete.

WHEN YOU TRAVEL FOR ie GO WHERE BUSINESS IS

There are only five cities of over 35,000 inhabitants in the Republic
of Mexico that are not reached by the Mexican Central Line.

The following ten cities are reached only by the Mexican Central
Railway:

Chihuahua 30,098 inhabitants; Parral 16,382; Zacatecas 34,438; Gua-
najuato 40,580; Leon 63,263; Guadalajara 101,208; Queretaro 38,016; Za- —
mora 12,533; Aguascalientes 37,816; Irapuato 19,640. ‘

It also reaches the Cities of Torreon 13,845;San Luis Potosi 60,558;
Tampico (Mexican Gulf Port) 16,313; Celaya 25,565; Pachuca 37,487.
City of Mexico 368,777. : :

Daily Pullman service beetween St. Lowis, Mo., and Mexico City, wlso ©
between El Paso, '[ex., and Mexico City, and vice versa.
©. R. HUDSON, c. F. & Pp. aA. a. J.T. WHALEN, G. Wee. AC :
W. D. MURDOCK; a. G. & p. A. Mexican Central Ry., 209 House Bldg; ~

St. Louis, Mo. |
Mexico City.

and fruit unknown:

“somewhat twisted,

_ fruit reddish (7%),
long: seeds reddish, oblique-obovate, 1.2

_ Type in Herb. Coulter.

Vol. XII. No. r4. July,

CACTUS NOTES.

The following have been described by
Coulter under the generic name Cactus—
those which prove to be valid species we
will name as Mammillarias, but will not
yet make the transfer,
known to be synonyms only of old spe-

as some are

cies:

CACTUS ALTERNATUS Coulter.
“Subglobose, 10 cm. in diameter, simple:

tubereles long (15-20 mm) and spreading,

with woolly axils: radial spines 3, rigid

and| recurved, 5 mm long; central spines

3, very stout and much recurved, 20-30 mm

long, alternating with the radials; all

ashy colored and often twisted: flower

Type, in Herb. Coul-
¢er. San Luis Potosi (Eschauzier of
1891).’—Coulter Cont U S Nat Hb 3:95

CACTUS ESCHAUZIERI Coulter.

“Depressed-globose, 3 cm in diameter,
simple: tubercles broader at base, 6-8 mm
long, with naked axils: spines all pubes-
cent; radials 15-20, with dusky tips, the

lateral 10-12 mm long, the lower weake:,

shorter and curved, the upper shorter,
solitary central spine reddish, slender,
usually hooked up-
wards, 15-20 mm long: flowers red (7%):
ovate, about 10 mm

mm long, pitted, with subventral hilum.
San Luis Potosi
(Eschauzier of 1891).’"’—Coulter Cont US

1902.

Whole No. 115

Nat Hb 3:104.
CACTUS PRINGLEI Coulter.

r

“Globose (?), 5 em in diameter: tuber-

cles short-conical, about 6 mm long, with
very woolly axils: radial spines 18-20, se-
taceous-bristly and radiant, 5-8 mm long,
central spines 5-7 (usually 6), stout ana
horny, more or less recurved, spreading.
20-25 mm long; all straw-colored, but the
centrals darker: flowers deep red (dark
er, even brownish outside), 8-10 mm long:
fruit unknown. Type, Pringle of 1891 1a
Herb. Gray.’’—Coulter, Cont U S Nat Hb
3:109.

CACTUS MACULATUS Coulter.
em, simple: t

“Obovate-cylindrical, 6 by 8 em, some-
what cespitose: tubercles ovate, terete, 10
mm long, grooved to the base, with na-
ked axils: radial spines 10 or 11, straight
and spreading, rigid, blackish (becoming:
ashy with age), black-tipped, 12 mm long;
central spine large, more or less spotted.
erect, 25-35 mm long: flower 13 mm long,
pinkish: fruit unknown, Type in Herp.
Coulter, San Luis Potosi (Eschauzier of
1891).’""-—Coulter Cont U S Nat Hb 3:117.

CACTUS BRUNNEUS Coulter.

“Obovate-cylindrical, 3 by 6 em, simple.
tubercles ovate, grooved to the base, 5-6
mm long, with woolly axils: radial spines
11-15, spreading, rather rigid and brown-
ish (lighter with age), 8-10 mm long; cen-
tral spine much larger, 20 mm long,
hooked: flower and fruit unknown, Type
in Herb. Coulter. San Luis Potosi (Hs-
chauzier of 1891),’’"—Coulter Cont U S Nat
Hb 3:117.

CACTUS DENSISPINUS Coulter,
“Globose, 7.5 em in diameter, simple:
tubercles short, with woolly axils: radia,

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