Page:Travels in Mexico and life among the Mexicans.djvu/204

196 oranges, and mangos. To impress upon one the character of the vegetation of the coast, a group of coco palms must be imagined, waving their long leaves wildly in the wind or shining like gold in the sun. Essentially a littoral product, the coco-palm is rarely found far inland, and the equally beautiful and tropical plant, the banana, leaves it behind, in the advance up the mountains, as the foot-hills are reached.

These plains are not level, but rise from a low altitude above the sea to a height of two thousand feet and more; then the hills set their feet upon them and vegetation radically changes. This coast section is called the tierra caliente, or hot country; but with our entrance into the hills we pass gradually to a cooler and

more salubrious climate, called by the natives tierra templada, the temperate region. Here, indeed, Nature manifests herself in her grandest productions; vegetation begins to be profuse; the huts of the natives, the great and towering trees, the rocks, the entire surface of the soil, are covered with gay flowers and