the stone and cut it in portions as they have done, to sell it piecemeal beyond the seas. This is historical: it were better the neighbors of the town had received their $1,000,000 for the jewel, rather than only the hope of eternal glory for the past, the present and the future crimes among them. An emerald of immense value suffered Hell for those who have sinned and who shall sin, giving them a key to open the doors of Heaven eternally at their will.
"In the district of Chalchimula there are also marbles, and in A!atriste there are great hot springs superior to those of the capital of Puebla, and equal probably to those of Aguascalientes and of Atotonilco el Grande, of the State of Hidalgo.
"Treating of the vegetable kingdom, the districts of Huachinango, Zacatlan, Tetela, Zacapoatla, Tlalauqui, and Tezuitlan produce the finest woods in the world, such as the varieties of cedar, ebony, the mahogany, zapatillo, the oyametl, pine, ocotl, juniperus sabina, oak, madroño, bamboo, ayacohuite, liquidambar, India-rubber tree, and that which yields the gum chitle, and, above all woods, the writing-tree, whose veins of color upon a yellowish ground form monograms, flourished letters, abbreviated words, and a thousand capricious figures and profiles. This wood has been adjudged, at the Expositions of Vienna, Paris, and Philadelphia, the finest from the five continents. In the districts of Acatlan, Chiuatla, and Matamoros, belonging to this State, to the southward, are produced the aloe, silk-cotton tree, log-wood, tamarind, huizacha (a species of acacia), mezquit, venenillo, tlalhuate, huaje, and other woods with Mexican names, whose qualities and duration leave nothing to be desired. Some of the trees produce the most exquisitely fragrant gums, known as myrrh, incense, and copatle, besides the rich essence of the aloe. The yellow dye known as Zacatlaxcatl, so highly prized in China, Cochin-China, Tartary, and Japan, is abundantly produced in these districts and in Tecamachalco and Telmacan. The palm which is used for mats and common hats is produced in the districts of Tepip, Tepeaca, Tecali and Tehuacan; and in the last named, cactus of the most extraordinary dimensions, as well as the vine from which is made a wine superior to that of Spain and
