40 BOTANICAL EXCURSIONS 
are of a very rich orange-red (different from the coral-red of dloe arborescens), 
closely crowded, forming extremely thick and long spikes, with the stamens 
projecting considerably beyond the petals. These flowers contain much 
honey, and the leaves, when broken, discharge a great quantity of an exces- 
sively bitter, deep yellow, transparent juice. 
It is very much to be wished that some botanist, residing for a considerable 
time in Southern Africa, should devote his attention particularly to the succu- 
lent genera of plants, such as Aloe, Mesembryanthemum and Euphorbia, which 
have as yet been studied only in our green-houses, and which, as they cannot 
be preserved by drying, ought to be be described and drawn in the living state. . 
(E) A large and beautiful species of Everlasting (Helichrysum fetidum De C.), 
bearing a profusion of golden yellow flowers, is common on the edges of 
streams in the Long Kloof, in company with the graceful and pretty Gnidia 
oppositifolia, and a great variety of Restiacee. In most of these streams there 
is abundance of our common Reed-mace or Bull-rush (Typha latifolia) ; this 
well known European plant was supposed by Thunberg to be merely natu- 
ralized in the Cape colony, but it appears to me utterly improbable that it 
should have been introduced, either by accident or design, into the waters of 
these wild and thinly inhabited tracts. 
On the arid and stony hills which border the Long Kloof, I met with a 
curious species of Heath, the Erica Solandriana ; likewise Helichrysum. cy- 
mosum De C., H. paniculatum De C., H. anomalum De C., H. nudifolium De C., 
and Lanaria plumosa ; but by far the most abundant plants at this season 
were various kinds of Restio, which have very much the appearance of rushes. 
Metalasia muricata De C. is extremely common in the Long Kloof, and, in- 
deed, throughout the districts of Zwellendam and George. 
_ (F) This place, situated about six degrees east of Cape Town, seems to be 
pretty nearly the westernmost limit, in South Africa, of the geographical range 
of the curious genus Zamia ; atleast I never saw nor heard of any species 
farther to the west. The Zamias are among the forms of vegetation which 
characterize the eastern part of the colony, and especially the great tract of 
thicket, or bush, extending along the Caffer frontier. But the species which 
= I saw at Jagersbosch was different from that which is most common in the 
The p 
botany of Australia and that of 
` ; d The species belonging to the two continents are indeed dis- 
tinct, yet very similar in structure. But some of the Australian Zamias are 
said to grow to the height of nearly thirty feet, whereas the larger of the two - 
kinds that I saw did not exceed five feet. The stem is very thick, and (im —— 
entia more particularly) has a tesselated appearance from the scars of the a 
Southern Africa, 
