The evening times., 1899-09-19

Growing in one OF the hothouses of the
Botanical Gardens are four little century
plants, each about a foot high which are
are rare specimens and the first of their
kind ever brought to this country. From
this species OF century plants the Mexicans
make their mescal or native whisky, and
while many species OF the plant from
which pulque or the Mexican beer is made
in the botanical gardens OF this country,
The Pants mentioned are the first of the
mescal variety introduced into the United
States, according 10 DR.. ]. N. Rose, of the
National Museum, who with DIR. Walter
Hough, also Of the Museum spent three
months and travelled Il.00U miles through
Mexico. gathering specimens, DR.. Hough
devoting his attention TO the etuiy OF the
Indian tribes " Mexico.
1T was claimed that there was a speci-
men of the tequila plant in Shaw's Gar
den, at St. Louis said DR.. Rose, but
have recently visited that garden and found
that they had none, so l sent them one of
the half dozen plants / secured in Mexico
and also 5 ent ;i..other specimen to The Kew
Gardens in England. The other four are
in the BDtanical i;ardcus here and though
small, ! hopa Il. sec then 6row Several
feet high in the next few years.
''The probable reason for there not be-
ing any of the plants in this country is
that the town of Tequila, where most of
the mescal made in Mexico is manufactur-
ed, and where the tequila plants grow, is
about 300 miles from the City of Mexic1
and probably fifty miles from a railroad. /
I Id b.ff he fOl,f in
coach from the terminus of the railroad
to reach Tequila, a town of probably 500
inhabitants.
Around Tequila the country is very
rough and thousands of acres of tequila
plants are grown. The plants are made
into mesCal by the half dozen distilleries
around Tequila which are fitted with i'm
proved machinery. There are different
grades of mescal the same as there are
different grades of whisky in this country,
but the Tequila mescal is said TO be the
best, being a sort Of Kentucky product of
the country, and this brand / have here is
said TO be very fine"
The doctor uncorked bottle containing
a fluid in color not unlike what is known
as 'moonshine whisky" being almost
pure white. The doctor said it was about
60 per cent alcohol and tasted like genuine
fire water, being almost hot enough 10
take the skin off the tongue.
Besides the mescal century plant, TO the
observation of which DR.. Rose devoted a
great deal of his trip in Mexico gathered
about l25 different specimens OF growing
plants mostly cacti and about 800 kinds Of
dried plants which viii be added to the
collection in the National Museum.
''Our trip as a whole was very satisfac-
tory" said DR.. Rose, "and while we had
a hard time making the Mexicans believe
we had come all the way from Washington
just TO study q lot of plants which they
had seen all their lives and never paid any
attention 10, they treated us very courte-
ously and furnished up with all the irfor-
nation we wanted. While l hope the te-
quila plants Will grow well, do not think
there is any change of their ever becoming
common enough in this country to be made
into mescal and rival the whisky trust pro-
duct ."