112 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



greater part of the depressed country is covered with thickets, 

 as far as the lower parts of the higher mountains ; little 

 mountains and hills are covered with the same thickets, and 

 the open spaces afford superior pasturage. The higher part 

 of the mountains hereabouts is free from wood, and chiefly 

 covered with useful herbs and grasses. The Protectees and 

 Heaths, although there are several fine species in these moun- 

 tains, are not so freely dispersed here as on the mountains 

 nearer the Cape. The real South African forests, with 

 useful trees for timber, are scattered generally along the 

 southern shores or in the ravines of the southern sides 

 of mountains nearest to the southern sea-coast. The 

 principal masses of forests are at Kneisona, at Zizikamma, 

 Olifantshack, and about the Kowie River, where the 

 Podocarpus Thunbergii, Oreodaphne bullata, Boscia undu- 

 lata, Sideroxylon melanophleum, Pteroxylon utile grow to 

 very high trees, useful for many kinds of husbandry. The 

 Erythrina Cqffra may be considered the king of the forest 

 in Albany and Olifantshock, on account oi its size, but 

 the wood is of little use, except for shingles, which are 

 considered very durable ; but as the mode of thatching 

 houses with shingles is not much adopted in the Cape colony, 

 the valuable quality of that tree is scarcely known but to a 

 few inhabitants. 



We made several excursions on the neighbouring moun- 

 tains; they were covered in many places, to an eleva- 

 tion of nearly 800 feet, with those kinds of thickets j and in 

 some ravines were also forests, sheltered from the parching 

 sun by high precipices. The Helichrysece, Aspalathem, Gera- 

 niacea, Campanulace®, Polygalea, Diosmeee, Saccharines, Chlo- 

 ridoe and Festucece were very conspicuous among the moun- 

 tain vegetation to 2,500 feet of elevation. We had the oppor- 

 tunity on these excursions to see that remarkably la*o e 

 spring rising in these mountains, which supplies the village of 

 Uitenhage with water ; the quantity of water, which rises 

 out of this spring, is considerable, and never diminishes) 

 even in the driest summer months. 



