238 
Abstract of a Journal kept during the voyage of H.M.S. Herald; 
by BERTHOLD SEEMANN. 
(Continued from p. 217.) 
On the 16th of March I returned to Simon’s Town. Mr. Zeyher 
accompanied me to Wynberg, where we paid a visit to Mr. James 
Bowie. He was living in a nice little cottage surrounded by a flower- 
garden, in which he cultivates many valuable specimens. We remained 
several hours, and were entertained by him with an account of some of 
his travels, and several interesting anecdotes of his former companion, 
Allan Cunningham. When the mail coach arrived I took my leave of 
Mr. Zeyher, but a few days later I had the pleasure of seeing him 
at Simon’s Bay, whence we made another excursion together on the 
adjacent mountains. During his stay T directed the attention of Mr. 
Zeyher to the Xanthium spinosum, Linn., a herb which has become 
perfectly naturalized, abounding on the sea-shore and among rubbish 
near dwellings. He had never before observed it in any part of the 
colony, and is of opinion that it must have been but lately introduced. 
I have always made it a point to notice the first plants which I could 
reach after landing at a place, and I have found that in most instances 
they were foreign, not indigenous; the Xanthium spinosum, Linn., was 
one of these. 
I asked Mr. Zeyher respecting the Cape Aloes and Bukus, as sug- 
gested by Sir William Hooker in Sir John Herschel’s ‘ Manual of Scien- 
tific Inquiry.’ He informed me that the Aloë feroz, Lam., formerly 
supplied the drug called Aloes; but that, as this species has become 
. Scarce, it is now extracted from the 4. Africana, Mill., and that from 
the latter that used at Bethelsdorp, near Algoa Bay, is procured. 
. Concerning the Bukus he states that the article is principally ob- 
. tained from the Diosma crenata, DC., and the Empleurum serratifolium, 
Sol.; he himself having seen the natives gathering it. 
. . H.M.S. Herald left Simon’s Bay on the 27th of March, and anchored 
on the 8th of April off James Town, St. Helena. Next day I walked 
to Longwood, which is now tumbling to ruins; Napoleon's tomb also, 
since the removal of the lid, no longer protected from the influence of 
the weather, is sharing the same fate, and in a few years the island. 
.. will probably retain nothing save the recollection of having been the 
