334 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



(n. 1404), with a suffruticose stem and fine blue flowers ; 

 Ruellia ? (n. 1413) growing out of the fissures of the rocks, 

 with large ovate capitula; Blepharis satureicefolia, (n. 1410) ; 

 Thumbergia Capensis? (n. 1419); a very fine species of 

 Trichonema? (n. 1604), with large purple flowers growing 

 likewise between the fissures of the rocks ; Cyperus ? 

 (n. 1748); C/uetaria, (n. 1816) ; Eragrostis? (n. 1840). 



Game was rather scarce in the immediate neighbourhood 

 of the Great Vet River on account of the many emigrants, 

 who had settled about here. We met here for the first time 

 Lamprotornis Burchellii, Smith, a fine kind of starling, with 

 a green and shining plumage, like that of L. aurata, but of a 

 much larger size, and with a longer tail. The Euplectis Take, 

 Smith, a small finch, inhabiting the ridges on moist places, 

 and very swift on the wing, made likewise its first appear- 

 ance here, as also a fine species of Pterocles gutturalis, Smith, 

 together with the. Namaqua partridge, Pterocles Namaguana, 

 Tern. ; they frequent the rivers generally in large coveys 

 during day for the sake of the water. 



The news of the early appearance of the horse distemper 

 had induced the many emigrant farmers, who lived about 

 here, to send their horses to an elevated tract at some days 

 distance, on a flat-topped Table Mountain, to keep them 

 there till all danger was over. It is believed by the 

 greater part of the farmers, that the luxuriant growth of the 

 grass, after drenching rains, when it has been very dry before, 

 will cause this distemper ; and the same they believe will be 

 effected by the dew in the morning, both assumptions, how- 

 ever, are scarcely credible. If these animals are sent in 

 time before the disease has commenced below, to such 

 elevated places, they are perfectly safe, provided the eleva- 

 tion is sufficient to occasion an equal temperature during day 

 and night. If that object is realized, there is no farther 

 danger : be it ever so dry, after heavy rains, the grass grows 

 luxuriantly. All is safe when there is only an equal propor- 

 tion with regard to temperature between day and night, 

 which is always the case on those high regions, where the 



