906. The floating gardens, or chinampas, mentioned by the Abbe Clavigero, says Humboldt, still exist. They are of two sorts : the one mobile, and blown here and there by the winds; and the other fixed, and united to the shore. The former alone merit the appellation of floating, and they are diminishing day by day. He assigns to them the same origin as the Abbe Clavigero ; but thinks it probable that nature also may have suggested the first idea; and gives instances of small pieces of surface, netted with roots and covered with plants, being detached from the marshy shores of other American lakes, and floating about in the water. The bean, pea, apple, artichoke, cauliflowers, and a great variety of other culinary plants, are cultivated on them.
