BOTANY OF CAPE RTCIIE. 219 



transport a living Kimjia to Kew ! I have not yet got seeds of them : 

 they are now in flower; the growth must be very slow. Lindley, in 

 his Swan Kiver Plants, speaks disparagingly of the Tersoonim^ yet they 

 always j)lease me for the brightness and clearness of their yellow-green 

 foliage, so different from the dull russet of most Froieacece^ and their 

 flowers are often so abundant as to light up the bushes, like a cloud of 

 fire-flies. The Synapliece^ too, from the elegant forms of their dry 

 leaves, and the bright yellow of their spiked flowers, are veiy pleasing. 

 Bryandrce are all past flowering. The prostrate species of that genus, 

 and of Banksiay several of which were common along the road, have 

 quite the aspect of Ferns, their pinnatifid leaves springing, like those of 

 a Polypodium, from underground stems. I have not dug out a Nuytsia^ 

 but T think it highly probable that there is underground attachment to 

 the roots of other plants. No one, as I am informed, has ever found 

 ripe fruit, and Drummond has looked for it long and closely. The 

 tree increases by underground suckers, \vhich are sent to a great dis- 

 tance. Wherever you see a NuyUia, there are myriads of young stems 

 rising round it. They are leafless, and look like somewhat succulent 

 Jacksonias, no true leaves being formed till the plant becomes a tree. 

 It is a very deformed-Iooking tree at best, but gay enough w^hen in 

 blossom J its leaves, too, are of a very beautiful tender green. They 

 call it the Cabbage-tree. 



'* My object in coming here at this season was chiefly Alga^y but, to my 

 chagrin, I find it a bad coast for them. A good storm would, I be- 

 lieve, aflford me many good plants, to judge by the scraps that I find 

 on the beach ; but there is very little ground laid bare at low water for 

 examination, and the weather, since my arrival, has been provokingly 

 calm, I must stay three weeks longer, however, so have yet a chance 

 of something. I fear almost all the Australian coast w^ill be similarly 

 circumstanced; that is, that I must depend chiefly on storms for cast-up 

 plants. The Fucoids along shore do not seem to reach their proper 

 development ; at least, none are yet to be found in fruit, and very few 

 are properly provided with air-vessels, I have got very few of them 

 yet. My dried specimens o^ Alga, so far, are about 5000, but only 

 about 120 species among them. I have got a Martensia (or Hemi- 



ri* j> 



trema), but very few specimens of it ; it was a deep-water waif. 



