M. SEEMANN'S JOURNAL. 218 
inviting appearance. Like many similar localities, however, it is very 
productive, and, on account of its climate, by far richer than the vici- 
nity of Cape Town. Proteacee are particularly abundant. The Protea 
cynaroides, Linn., may be seen in the greatest perfection, producing 
heads frequently more than eight inches in diameter. It is, however, 
less frequent than its congener, the Protea grandiflora, Thunb., which 
indeed is so common that it imparts a bluish hue to some places, and 
thus forms a peculiar feature in the landscape. The colonists call it 
Wagenboom, and employ its wood to make felloes, a purpose for 
which, on account of its toughness, it is admirably adapted. The 
Wagenboom is from eight to fourteen feet high, and supplies, like 
several other Proteacee, the principal fuel of Simon’s Town. We can 
hardly reconcile ourselves with the idea that any one should be so in- 
considerate as to cut down plants which we esteem so highly, and on 
whose structure and cultivation so many learned treatises have been 
written. I must confess that when witnessing the proceeding for the 
first time my feelings were almost akin to those of the soldier in a cer- 
tain comedy, who, on entering France, discovers to his surprise that 
even the children speak French, a language which hitherto he had 
considered merely as an accomplishment of adults. 
I was much struck with the Myrica cordifolia, Linn., which covers 
whole tracts of the downs, and appears at first sight to be about two 
or three feet high; on a closer inspection, however, it becomes evident 
that what seems to be little bushes are only the branches of subterra- 
nean trees! I succeeded in freeing several from the sand,—not a very — 
difficult operation,— and found regular stems creeping a few inches 
below the surface, and attaining, in some instances, as much as sixty 
feet in length. The plant performs, therefore, the same office at the 
Cape as several Carices in Northern Europe—that of keeping down 
the loose shifting sand. Another plant, which both man and nature 
have applied to the same purpose, is the Paarde Vygen (Mesembryan- — 
themum edule, Linn.). On the road between Simon’s Town and Wyn- 2 
berg whole acres are planted with it. The vernacular name of the 
latter, I may add, has occasionally been confounded with that of an 
allied species, the M. acinaciforme, Linn. The plant called Hottentots’ d 
Vygen or Paarde Vygen (Hottentots’ Fig or Horse-fig) is the At. | 
edule, Linn., while that. termed Zyre Vygen (Sour Fig) » the M. aci- 
naciforme, Linn., and not vice versé, as some authors have it. = 
