Piiblic Institutions of Cape Town. 205 



The South African Museum, containing collections of 

 natural history, is now under the superintendence of Mr. L. 

 Layard (brother of the celebrated investigator of Nineveh). 

 This institution, as well as the South African public library, 

 the literary, scientific, and mechanics* institutions, besides 

 nearly fifty other establishments and societies for religious, 

 benevolent and industrial purposes, owe their foundation and 

 flourishing condition to the public spirit and the charitable 

 disposition of the inhabitants of the colony. In 69 schools 

 scattered over its surface, upwards of 18,000 pupils are 

 educated according to a system introduced in 184-1 by Sir 

 John Herschel. 



The Botanical Gardens, likewise founded and kept up by 

 private subscription, are not only a most agreeable resort, 

 but also afford much instruction, arising from the many 

 interesting and useful plants gathered here from all quarters 

 of the world. To those which are adapted for cultivation 

 in the sandy plains of the Cape, great attention is devoted. 

 Some of them have been found available in forming as it were 

 vegetable walls of protection against the inroads of the sand, 

 so destructive to all cultivation. As particularly serviceable 

 for this purpose, were mentioned to us Fabricia variegata, a 

 sea-shore shrub of from 6 to 10 feet high ; Protea myrtifera; 

 the so-called Hottentot fig : Mesemhryanihemum edulis ; and 

 the Cape wax-myrtle Myricacordifolia ; — all these are found 

 to thrive in the sand without cultivation, put a stop to its 

 ravages, and in some respects may be considered as the 



