Baja California, Mexico, circa 1895
by Léon Diguet

The French historian and naturalist Léon Diguet made six scientific expeditions to Mexico between 1893 and 1913. An autodidact, he wrote over 40 articles based on his travels (on such diverse subjects as botany, archeology, anthropology and linguistics) and was one of the first scientists to use photography to illustrate his research writings. With only a few copies of this photograph known to exist in the world, this image of a Cardon cactus (nearly 8m tall and weighing roughly 10 tons) shows a spectacular example of a plant of this species.