Between 1879 and 1915, two editors published a series they called
BiologĂa Centrali-Americana, a catalog of the plants and animals of
Mexico and Central America. With over 50,000 descriptions and 18,000
images, this astonishing work "contained nearly everything known" of
the region's biodiversity at the time of its publication. Did we
mention it weighed in at 63 volumes? Only eight libraries hold the
entire set, and, some time ago, it slipped out of print. However, The
Smithsonian and London's Natural History Museum (among others) have
been hard at work to rectify that sad state of affairs. Over the past
years, they've uploaded much of the series' biological volumes to the
Web. Because of their labors, we can now spend all the time we want
hanging out with the mammals, swimming with the fishes, and sniffing
the flowers of turn-of-the-century Mesoamerica.