Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/809

 Aztec, as the descendants of an American flora whose traces are lost in far-off geologic ages, even as the forefathers of the Aztec are shrouded in the mist of prehistoric centuries. In truth, there seems a striking fitness in associating these odd monarchs of the soil with the barbaric majesty of the empire of Montezuma; a John Ruskin might say, the cactus typified the Aztec's sturdy, unwithering energy and stoic cruelty; the agave, his lofty nobleness of mind; and the yucca, the passionate beauty of his nature. But let the sentiment stand—the Aztec has passed away, and yet



this plant group still holds its own over the rocky hills and mountain sides and barren plateaus, withstanding drought and burning sun, and thriving in the arid sand wastes. And out from their native region many representatives have found their way southward, over into the West Indies, down through Central America, still further to the northern Andes, and almost to the Amazon; and others, though fewer, have come up into our Western plains and mountains, scattered over the Mississippi Valley, and passed through the Gulf States and far up the Atlantic coast. Thus eastward and northward from Texas we can count perhaps a dozen cacti, several yuccas, and one or two agaves, all luxuriating