760 THE SILVER THEE. [April 



been planted within a considerable period, for nobody in the neigh- 

 bourhood of those places knows anything about them. That they 

 were planted in earlier times during the Dutch occupation he holds 

 to be very unlikely, because planting was then limited to avenues 

 of European oaks and a few groves of pines. He also urges that 

 the intervening sandy plain of some 20 miles in breadth is a 

 sufficient obstacle to have prevented modern migration. Of course 

 no opinion worthy of consideration could be hazarded on the fore- 

 going points without a complete knowledge of the early history of 

 the settlement of the country and a thorough acquaintance with its 

 topography ; but we have the testimony of the accurate and observant 

 Burchell that the silver tree was planted to some considerable extent 

 as long or longer ago than the beginning of the present century. In 

 his Travels (vol. i. p. 61) is the following passage relating thereto, 

 premising that it was in the year 1811 : — " Neither of us being 

 acquainted with the proper road to Constantia, we missed it, and 

 wandered till we came to a very pretty farmhouse, where, on 

 inquiring our way of two women, we received an answer in good 

 English. They informed us that the place belonged to Mr. Duckett, 

 an English agriculturist, who has for many years resided in the 

 colony, and whose knowledge of European husbandry has enabled 

 him to manage a Cape farm with considerable success ; he is one of 

 the small number of English colonists who were at this time to be 

 met with in the country. This place is called Witteboom, a name 

 which, with great propriety, it has received on account of numerous 

 plantations of large Witteboom, or silver trees, which grow about 

 it. The native station of this handsome tree is the sloping ground 

 at the foot of the eastern side of Table Mountain ; and at present 

 very large plantations occupy the same situation on the northern 

 side, next to the town. That this space should be the only part in 

 all the colony where it grows wild can be no subject of wonder to 

 any person who has the least knowledge of Cape botany, since the 

 natural places of growth of a multitude of other plants are circum- 

 scribed by limits equally contracted." 



Here, then, is irrefragable evidence that the silver tree was 

 extensively planted long ago in the peninsula, if not elsewhere. 

 From his route map it would appear that Burchell just missed the 

 localities in the Drakensteenberg cited above; therefore, although 

 he is silent on the subject, the silver tree may have existed there 

 in those days. Yet it is surprising that it should have been so 

 long overlooked or disregarded in so accessible a part of the country. 



With regard to the cultivation of the silver tree. Dr. Marloth 

 states it only grows in a soil strongly impregnated with decomposed 

 granite. He nowhere met witli it in sandy or slaty soil, and 



