306 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 
Extracts of a letter from Mr. Bowie, late Gardener to Baron 
Ludwig, of Ludwigsberg, Cape of Good Hope, to the Hon. 
W. H. Harvey. 
Plumstead, C. of G. H., Nov. 1841. 
I have it now in contemplation to undertake some excur- 
sions, to a distance of about 150 miles, in a north-east direc- 
tion, in which I shall visit the mountain ranges of Zwellen- 
dam, Worcester, &c., for the purpose principally of making 
collections of seeds and bulbs for sale. Several persons have 
given me commissions to bring them these articles, and it is 
only in the districts I have mentioned they are to be found. 
Before my departure on these journies, it is always needful 
to form a garden as a depót for those plants which I send 
home, and to leave a confidential person in charge of it, who 
will also assist me in planting and nursing such specimens 
as are not immediately exported. To meet this necessary 
expense, and the stil heavier outlay incurred in the 
hire of horses, and purchase of tools, paper, and needful 
equipment for man and beast, I have been giving instruction. 
and inspection in horticulture, a science which, it affords me 
much pleasure to say, is making a decided advance in this 
country; so that I do not despair of yet seeing prizes offered 
for the successful cultivation of flowers and vegetables in the | 
villages round the colony of Cape Town. 
If I devoted myself exclusively to the pursuit of visiting 
and improving gardens, and giving instruction to their 
owners, I doubt not I might make a good livelihood; but 
I now prefer to follow this employment mérel as affording me 
daily bread, and enabling me to explore the botany of the 
country, which is attended with considerable cost, in expedi- 
tions, assistants, garden-furniture, glass, &c. I can always 
be certain of obtaining a fair remuneration for the rare plants 
which I bring home and cultivate for exportation; and, as I 
keep a small stock of the more saleable kinds, I could even 
now, at three days’ notice, furnish bulbs (chiefly of the less 
common species of Trichonema, Galaxia, Morea, and Gladio- 
