IN SOUTH AFRICA, 23 
rican Aloe is of another genus, (Agave) and very different in 
its properties as well as in the structure of the flower. 
The next day (March 27) I observed these plants in great 
abundance in the Bush country near the Gauritz river. This 
was a sort of country quite new to me, and might be consi- 
dered as a foretaste of what we afterwards saw on an immensely 
larger scale in the eastern province. Here, in fact, a traveller 
proceeding eastward first meets with many of the singular 
forms of vegetation which characterize that province; such as 
the succulent, leafless, thorny Euphorbias, the Spekboom,* 
the Boerboontjes,+ the Najeboom,t of which I shall afterwards 
have occasion to speak more fully. Many of these forms do 
not occur again till we cross the Camtoos. The wild rough 
shrubbery of these plants, which forms a belt of some miles in 
width on both sides of the Gauritz, is much less dense than 
the eastern Bush; the soil appeared to be a crumbled shale or 
slaty clay. The Aloe previously mentioned* (see also Note D)is 
a strange uncouth looking plant, with its thick columnar stem, 
from five to ten feet igh, « crowned with a bunch of large, sharp, 
spear-like leaves, and clothed below with the black and rug- 
ged remains of its foliage. It is the most important medici- 
nal plant of the colony; the people collect its leaves, and 
extract the juice by boiling tillit is of the consistence of glue, 
in which state they send it down to Cape Town, and it forms 
a considerable article of export from thence to Europe. The 
estimated value of the exports of Aloes from the ie ea: in 
one year, amounted to £2794. 
The Gauritz, a considerable river, comes down oth a 
Great Karroo, through a gap in the mountain chain which we 
had seen on our left since quitting Zwellendam, and separates 
the district of that name from George. It flows in a very 
deep, narrow, and steep-sided valley; and for some time before 
reaching the place where we were to cross, we could see the 
stream far below us, winding round the tongue of high landon 
which we were travelling : on our right-hand wasa descent a m 
* Portulacaria Afra, t Schottia speciosa. f Cussonia spicata de uou 
: l KEAT ; o 
