strong, sharp thorns, so rigid and pungent, that no animal could
graze near it; nor would the naked-legged Hottentots venture to
walk amongst it, although it was not more than a foot and a half
high.
My men pointed out to me a small shrub *, the flowers of which
they use as a dye for giving a yellow color to the leather of their
preparing. By experiment, I found that the corolla of the dried
flowers, being infused in a small quantity of warm water, gave out
very readily a strong color, approaching to what is called Raw Terra
di Sienna, but brighter. Being a vegetable color, it possesses the advantage
of flowing freely from the pencil or pen, and might be used
as a very pleasing yellow ink. Some trials which I then made, have
remained ten years, without fading or losing any of their original
brightness. A permanent vegetable color of this quality would, perhaps,
be useful in the a rts; and the collection of it might be a source
of advantage, the more profitable, as being derived from land at present
useless to man. Some other plants of the same natural order,
which I afterwards met with, afford a dye equally good.
A great variety of succulent plants grow in every part of the
Karro; and I exceedingly regret that I had neither opportunity
for preserving them, nor time for making drawings. An object
very desirable for botany, would be obtained, if a good draughtsman
were to pass three or four years in travelling about the Cape
colony, with the sole view of drawing, on their native spot, all those
plants (excepting such as have already been figured and published)
which, kfrom their fleshy nature or delicate substance, cannot well
be preserved in an herbarium. He would, by doing this, accomplish
a work of great utility, and one which, from the singular
forms, or the delicate and beautiful flowers of (¿he objects, could not
fail to interest every lover of nature. No one, who has not examined
this country, can form any correct idea of. the immense
number and variety of plants of the succulent tribe, that are dis*
Catal. Geogr. No. 1208. .Ex ordine Ibymelearum.
persed in every district, and in all situations; but more especially
in the hot arid plains which occupy So large a portion of this territory.
Of these it may be asserted, that by much the smaller number
are known in Europe.
At half-past nine at night, we arrived at the Groote Doom-rivier
(Great Thorh-river), after travelling twenty miles, which is accounted
a full day’s work for oxen. *
16th. Day-light this morning showed us that we had taken up
our station near the dry bed of a river, in a very picturesque sheltered
spot, surrounded by Acacia-trees (Doornboom) twenty feet in
height. The soil here is entirely sand.
In the midst of the unvaried and treeless landscape of the
Karro, the clumps of Thorn-trees, which occur chiefly by the rivers,
were as grateful to the traveller as the Oases in the sandy desert.
Their light airy foliage gave a cheerfulness to the scene; while the
cooing of turtle-doves f, in the heart of an uninhabited waste, was a
sound that, being unexpected, was the more soothing and fascinating,
1 sat on the dry bank for a long time, listening with delight to
their gentle, plaintive note. For the sake of a little' water, which
still remained in a small puddle in the bed of the river, this place
was frequented by a few birds; among which were, the Musch-vogel
The plants found in this day’s journey, were —
Poa spinosa. Eriocephalus
Viscuiii Capenge : var. Cat. Geog. 1207. Pteronia
Aphyteia hydnora % Clirysocoma
Androcymbiwn volutare. B. C. G. 1215. Loranthus
So named from its two leaves being Lapeyrousia
curled back in the manner o f the voArctotis
lutes in the capital of the Ionic col umn. Crassula
Sesamum, &c.
f 'Columba risoi-ia. Lin. Sys. Nat.
J Aphytcia mu/ticcps, B., is a new species,'found in th e more western parts of this Karro, and of which I
received a specimen from my friend Hesse", to whom i t had been sent from the district of Clanurilliam or the
Elephant’s River. It is easily distinguished, by a subt erraneous stem, about two inches long, clothed with a
few large scales, as in all radical parasitic plants, and producing, in a close head, several flowers, (in my
specimen,’five,) which had not the appearance of being succeeded by a seed-vessel of a magnitude a t all proportionable
to that of A. Hydnora. * ,