Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 October 1884 — The Suburbs of Mexico. [ARTICLE]

The Suburbs of Mexico.

The attractions of Tacubaya and San Angel are their pure air and lovely gardens filled with magnificent trees. With a little care the trees and plants of all climes grow here side by side. The houses have windows with iron bars and sashes with glass (opening in French fashion) on the street, but the large gardens are in the rear on one side of them. A few gardens have large iron gates. Those of the Mier, Barron, and Escandon families are handsome, and that of Mier, at the entrance to the “Calle Real,” is really monumental. Pines, elpas, poplar, and willow, apple, and peach trees grow in fraternal neighborhood with the palm, the banana, and the cactus. Fuchsias, lilies, violets, heliotropes, pansies, honeysuckles, and geraniums flower all the year round. The geraniums grow to an immense height (I have seen walls covered with them to the heightof twelve and sixteen feet) on espaliers, like apricots and grapes. Their flowers are of many varieties and shades, from pure white and. light pink to the richest crimson, purple, and lilac, and some are variegated with these tints; their shapes vary from the “rose” to the “cinqfeuilles.” The calla-lily flowers exuberantly in the shade of the trees, above which the aromatic eucalyptus rears its head far beyond the pines, and then throws out immense branches.