Indigenous Language and Colonial Representation

This representation of an "axolotl" is mislabeled, instead depicting an iguana. The very same mistake can be found within the Novae plantarum (page 316), published 150 years prior; it is likely this mistake was inherited from the earlier text. 

This image, from Novae plantarum, animalium et mineralium Mexicanorum historia was published in 1651 and includes Nahuatl transliterations above the Latin Taxonomy. In addition to the Nahuatl name, Tlalamatl, also includes a second name in Nahuatl for when the tree grows flowers during the cold months: Quauhtlalamatl (Quauh in this case meaning budding). The authors of this text must have found these names valuable enough to include in the text - perhaps to represent them as both exotic and knowable through colonial knowledge systems.