Page:Pictures of life in Mexico Vol 1.djvu/33

Rh bananas entirely give way to bright, fresh palm-trees; the rank, dry vegetation is superseded by rich and dewy herbage; and the inhabitants of the district appear handsomer, better-dressed, and more intelligent.

The town of Xalapa fully realizes the most extravagant expectations. The houses are open and healthy, and built on picturesque hills amid luxuriant trees. The female inhabitants are amiable and refined; and religion and morals are held in high esteem. But the greatest attraction to an intelligent traveller is presented by the scenery. Forests stretched out like a sea of liquid amber, studded with rich bananas and shady palms, mezquite groves and cypress trees, tuna shrubs and orange bushes; beds of red and blue, purple and yellow flowers, piled in rich harmonious profusion, with tufts of hanging blossoms, beautiful alike in themselves and in their promise of golden fruit, present a ravishing sight! Scarcely less lovely are the birds of gay plumage, the parroquets and pheasants, cockatoos and humming-birds—the brilliant colours of their plumage shining in the sunlight, as they flutter among the branches. The fruits, ripe and bursting—the cherimoyas and granaditas,