560 BOTANICAL EXCURSIONS 
in domestic practice, (under the Hottentot name of Buke, or 
Bukoo), and are held *a certain remedy, so the old ladies 
assure you, for most of the ills that flesh is heir to.^* They 
have even been introduced into European practice, and, I 
believe, with good effect. 
The Bear's foot,t an ugly, prickly, repulsive-looking plant, 
with broad leaves spreading flat on the ground, is said to be 
an efficacious remedy in certain diseases; itis very common 
on the Cape hills in the winter months. The most important 
medicinal plants of the colony, the Aloes, are not found in 
the Cape district. 
The Waxberryt grows in abundance on the sand hills 
which you cross in going to Hottentot Holland, and also on 
the sea-shore at Kamp's Bay and elsewhere; it is a shrub 
three or four feet high, with small, crowded leaves, and 
round berries, which are covered with a whitish, waxy crust, 
and look very like apothecaries’ pills. This wax, like that of 
the American Candleberry Myrtle,§ is not unfrequently used 
in the country for making candles; but it does not burn very 
well. 
The only native fruit of the colony, as far as I am awar?- 
(if, indeed, it deserves the name of a fruit), is that called the 
Hottentot Fig,|| which makes a tolerable sweetmeat, but has 
otherwise little or no merit. The plant to which it belongs 
has thick, fleshy, bright-green leaves, and large, straw-Co- 
loured flowers, and spreads widely over the ground, forming 
extensive patches of a lively verdure. It is the most com- 
mon of all plants, not only in the neighbourhood of Cape 
own, but in the colony generally, extending quite to the 
eastern frontier; I saw it also growing abundantly in the 
island of St. Helena; but there, no doubt, it has been intro- 
duced. Some other species of Mesembryanthemum occur 0n 
the Cape hills and flats, but, in general, it may be remarked 
* Harvey’s Genera of S. African Plants. + Arctopus echinatus. 
å Myrica cordifolia, § Myrica cerifera. 
| Mesembryanthemum edule. 
