188 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



yond the Chobe, and about two hundred and fifty miles north of the 

 like. As no plants have as yet been brought from those parts of 

 Africa, I trust these may prove interesting to you. Mr. M'Cabe un- 

 fortunately lost his memorandum-book, and the notes of the locality of 

 each plant, etc., and the slight note I have appended to each is what 

 he gave me from memory after his retnrn. I have kept duplicates of 

 each, numbered to correspond; and if at any time you should have 

 leisure to give me the specific names, I shall feel greatly obliged. I 

 have now a large herbarium, and, by furnishing traders and others with 

 paper and boards, and giving them hints as to the mode of drying, as 

 I did to Mr. M'Cabe, I am continually adding to it. I have still the 

 duplicates of five hundred plants sent to you some seven or eight years 

 ago, numbered as were those I sent ; I fear some of them never reached 

 you. I had also three cases of Proteacea ready to send, but a war 

 broke out, and they remained here till the bottoms rotted out. 



I send you also a few plants I collected last year in Namaqualand, 

 near the west coast (in November and December, 1854). You will 

 find two species of the Orange River Ebony, which Sir J. Alexander 

 calls a Royena* but which turns out to be a Euclea. I hope soon to be 

 able to send a specimen of the wood for the Museum, which I hope 

 has fully answered your expectation. 



You will find also a few Ferns, gathered in the kloofs close to this 

 town ; one is a remarkable growth on the crown of a Tree Fern (Hemi- 

 telia), which grows from the base of the fronds. I send one with a 

 portion of the frond attached, to showthat it is not a parasitic Fern. 

 There are several Ferns growing on the stems of the Hemitelias, of 

 which there is a large forest, growing to the height of eight or nine 

 feet, with enormous fronds (of which I send a small portion), close to 

 town. If it would be acceptable, I can easily send you one of these 

 Tree Ferns, but whether it will live or not I cannot tell ; perhaps when 

 we get a line of steamers established I may succeed. 



Our Botanic Garden is progressing favourably, and I hope we shall 

 be able to erect in it a handsome glass conservatory, sixty feet long and 

 twenty feet high, which my father got out a few days before his death for 

 his own private use, at an expense of £535. It is on the plan of the 

 Crystal Palace, and will be a great acquisition ; — all iron and glass. 



I hope 1 shall be able to get Mr. Shepstone to take a few dried spe- 

 cimens of the " Jackal's Kolt" (Ifydnora), which grows parasitically on 



* It ia Enctea Pseudo-Ehetim, E. Mcv. 



