The surrounding hills and mountains were covered with the typical Mexican vegetation of the warm regions.  The many odd-shaped cacti form a strong contrast to the light and pinnate leaves of the numerous leguminous shrubs, acacia, sophronia, etc.  The chilicote, or coral-tree (erythraea), with scarlet flowers, is seen everywhere; also palo blanco, with a white stem, looking like an apple-tree.  The year 1893 was an exceedingly dry one throughout northern Mexico.  My mules, obliged to travel under a scorching sun, sometimes had to be without water for twenty-four hours.  Still, in those hot barrancas, I saw no difference in the vegetation.  The trees and plants did not seem affected by rain or no rain.  The only exception I noticed was that the fiat, leaf-like joints of the nopal cactus shrivelled up a little on the surface, but the fleshy inside seemed as juicy as ever.  Even during the dryest season the trees and shrubs here blossom and bear fruit, and mornings and evenings the air is filled with the perfume of acaciae, cacti, and other plants.  One is at a loss to understand how the cattle can subsist on these shrubs, but they have adapted themselves to circumstances, and are able to chew up the thick stems of the cacti, in fact the whole plant, with the result, however, that their stomachs are so filled with spines that the Mexicans cannot utilise the tripe.  The frugal Indian is the only one who does not reject it, but manages to burn off the biggest spikes while toasting the tripe on cinders.

Near Morelos are ancient house ruins, some round and some square, and also traces of circular fortifications built of loose stones.  Several of the latter were from sixteen to twenty yards in diameter and located on the top of mountain ridges.  The remains are attributed to the Cocoyomes.

The commonly accepted idea that in southern latitudes anything may be easily cultivated is often proved by actual observation to be fallacious.  Sometimes there may be too much rain, sometimes not enough.  The worst enemies of plant-life in the warm countries are the many pests.  One evening my host, Don Manuel Perez, showed me some of the foes he had to combat in order to maintain his garden.  Certain kinds of ants bite off the flowers and leaves and carry away the pieces.  The insects come out at night and may strip a tree of its leaves and fruits before morning.  It was an astonishing sight to see the dark stem of an elder looking .as if it were green, on account of the multitude of ants, each of which carried a bit of green leaf half an inch long.  Every evening a man went around to burn them off with a torch of resinous pine-wood.