jeits about two inches from the forehead. The mouth, and
indeed the whole head, refembles that of the bovine tribe, from
whence it has obtained in the Syjlema Nature the fpecific name
of bubalis.
All the chafms with which the plains of this part o f the
country are interfeifed, and the banks o f all the rivers, the
fides of the knolls, and the range of hiljs that terminates this
divifipn to the northward, were covered with wood. This
confifted generally of a tall luxuriant ihrubbery, out of which
fprang up is places, fometimes fmgly and frequently in clumps,
large foreft trees: of thefe the geelhout was the moft lofty, and
being here difentangled from the pendulous lichen that cramped
its growth in the. great forefts of Van Slaaden’s river, Ihewed
itfelf a's a beautiful tree. An euphorbia, throwing out a number.
of naked arms from a ftraight trunk thirty or forty feet
high, held a diftinguiihed place among the ihrubbery. But one
of the largeft and moft ihewy trees, and at this time in the
height o f its bloom, was the Kaffer’s bean-tree, the erythrina
corallodendrum, 5 fo called from the color and refemblance o f its
large clufters o f papilionaceous flowers to branches o f red coral.
Numbers of beautiful birds, fueh as fmall paroquets, touracos,
woodpeckers, and others, were fluttering about thefe tree6 for
the fake o f the juices yielded by the flowers. The coral-tree,
like moft dazzling beauties, has its imperfeilion : the leaves are
deciduous* and the bloflbms, like thofe o f the almond, have decayed
before the young leaves have burft their buds. Not fo
with the Hottentot’s bean : the clufters of fcarlet flowers intermingled
with the fmall and elegant dark-green foliage, gave it a
diftinguiihed
diftinguiihed place among the tall trees o f the kloofs, and the
thick ihrubbery on the ftdes of the fwells. This plant is the
African lignum vitas, the guajacum Afrum of Linnaeus, and the
fchotia fpeciofa of the Hortus Kewenjts. The wood, however,
is not fufficiently hard to be converted to the fame purpofes as
lignum vitas, nor is the tree large enough to make it of any
particular ufe. The feeds of this leguminous plant are eaten by
the Hottentots, and fometimes alfo are ufed by the colonifts.
Two plants of the palm tribe were frequently met with ; one,
the zamia cycadis, or Kaffer’s bread-tree, growing on the plains;
and the other, alfo a ipecies o f the fame genus, ikirting the
fpriiigs and rivulets: the fruit of the latter was called wild coffee,
and fubftituted by the peafantry for this berry. The flre-
litzia rcgina alfo, now in full and beautiful bloom, grew every
where in wide-fpreading patches in the vicinity o f the Great
Fifh river, but not one of the new ipecies, difcovered about
. twenty miles to the northward of Zwart Kop s river, could be
found among them. The cerulean blue nedtarium of the regime
feemed to be uniformly faded, and it loft its color by a
fhort expofure to the weather, which did not appear to be the
cafe with that of violet blue of the teretifolia. The feed of the
reginse is eaten both by the Kaffers and Hottentots. A great
variety of bulbous rooted plants were now fpringing out o f the
ground; and feveral ipecies of thofe elegant families the gladio-
lus, ixia, moraa, and the iris, were in full bloom. That lingular
plant the tumus elephantiopus, fo called from, a protuberance
thrown from the root refembling the foot of an elephant,
was met with only in this part of the country. Several fpecies
of xeranthmum and gnaphalium decorated the grafly plains
with,