86 BOTANY OF THE 
The Kleinia, Euphorbia and Plocama are three plants | 
which.the voyager recognizes long before reaching the shore; 
and they are so singular, whether as regards habit, locality, 
or botanical characters, that the opportunity of seeing them 
in a wild state, even from the sea, must be deemed a privi- 
lege by the Botanist. 
CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS. 
The voyage, from the Canaries to the Cape de Verd 
Islands, generally presents a hiatus in the journals of those 
sea-faring Naturalists who have followed this route. Before 
arriving at the Canaries, landsmen have scarcely recovered from 
the novelty of ship-board and its effects; nor has there been 
time, since leaving those islands, to become thoroughly inured 
to the monotony of a sailing life. At first sight, the Cape 
de Verd Islands are very disappointing. It is true that we 
had passed from an extra-tropical latitude to far within the 
tropics; but the change in position was not accompanied 
with a corresponding difference, still less with luxuriance, 
in the vegetation and scenery. Yet these apparently barren 
islands have associations of great interest; and their exami- 
-nation yields both pleasure. and profit. They afforded us 
the first glimpses of the fever-smitten coast of Africa, and of 
slavery. Even here the black man, deprived of freedom, 
and an alien to the land in which, though guiltless, he is 
a prisoner for life, is apt to be regarded as a mere object 
of Natural History by his Caucasian fellow-creature; who, 
before he has time for reflection, may perhaps be excused for 
pausing to consider, whether a being so different in features 
and social position, be really of the same origin as himself ; 
whether, in short, the poor African is a race of the same 
stock, or a species apart. : 
There are many other circumstances, connected with 
these islands, which keep the mind busy while in their 
neighbourhood. They form the western extreme of the Old 
World, of what was the whole world to civilized man, till 
