ON THE PALMITE OF SOUTH AFRICA. 175 



the foot of the mountains, and far above where the Palmite begins to 

 grow." And again, p. 91 : — "Most of the rivers which we passed in 

 this excursion are choked up with the plant called Palmiet by the colo- 

 nists, and from which this one derives its name. Some notion of the 

 appearance of these plants may be gained by imagining a vast number 

 of Ananas, or Pine-apple plants, without fruit, so thickly crowded to- 

 gether as to cover the sides and even the middle of the stream, stand- 

 ing seldom higher than three or four feet above the surface, but gene- 

 rally under water whenever the river swells above its ordinary height. 

 The stems which support them are of the thickness of a man's arm, 

 black, and of a very tough and spongy substance, generally simple, 

 though not rarely divided into two or more branches. They rise up 

 from the bottom, not often in an upright posture, but inclined by the 

 force of the current. They have very much the growth of Dragon- 

 trees (Dracana), or of some Palms, from which latter resemblance they 

 have obtained their name/' And lastly, at p. 139 of the same volume : 



;i We approached the Berg Kiver with some anxiety lest it should not 

 be fordable, but found it not yet risen higher than four feet. The ford, 

 which had rather the appearance of a lane, led us through the tall, 

 thick Palmite, with which the river was in this part so choked up, that 

 its waters seemed as if struggling to find a passage between their stems. 

 It would be very unsafe, without great care, for a traveller to ford a 

 river of this kind ; for should he, by the force of the stream, be carried 

 into the Palmites, he might find the greatest difficulty in extricating 

 himself or his horse from amongst their entangled trunks. 5 ' Should 

 the fibre prove valuable in a commercial point of view, such rivers of 

 South Africa would supply any amount of the plant and some benefit 

 to the country would accrue from the riddance of such a pest to travel- 

 lers . 



Peculiar as this plant is in habit, it is no wonder that E. Meyer con- 

 stituted a genus of it. It is his Prionium Palmetta (Linnaea, vol. vii. 

 p. 131). But all authors agree that in botanical character it is in no 

 way different from Juncus, save in the sessile stigmas. Brown observes 

 of it (Prodr. p. 591), "Forsan Junci non legitima species, etsi ovarii 

 loculi polyspermi, et capsula triloculare. 



