562 BOTANICAL EXCURSIONS 
garden of Baron von Ludwig, a gentleman remarkable for 
his zeal and liberality in the promotion of science, in a 
country where it has but too few votaries. It is neverthe- 
less to be regretted, that a public botanical garden, on an 
adequate scale, is not formed and supported by the govern- 
ment. Such an establishment did exist while the Cape was 
in the hands of the Dutch, but one of the earliest English 
Governors, I have been told, not seeing the utility of the 
thing, broke it up, and converted the grounds into paddocks 
for his horses. 
The culinary vegetables of Europe succeed very well at 
the Cape, especially artichokes, which grow larger and finer 
than I have seen them elsewhere. I had heard much praise 
of the cultivated fruits, but I thought them overrated; it is 
true that the season was a bad one. The grapes, though 
good, are not equal to some I have eaten in Italy; the figs 
are moderate; and the oranges very inferior to those of Rio 
de Janeiro. The climate is too hot and dry for gooseberries and 
currants, but not quite hot enough (at least, it has not a suffi- 
ciently high average temperature) for the pine-apple ; I believe 
Baron von Ludwig is the only person at the Cape who culti- 
vates this “ queen of fruits” with success. Thunberg says that 
the Banana did not thrive at the Cape in his time : it flowers 
every year in the gardens of Government House, and ripens 
its fruit, which, however, is not of so fine a quality as in 
Brazil. The Loquat, or Japan Medlar, succeeds very well, and 
bears plenty of fruit, which is something like a sweet, yellow 
plum, but of no extraordinary merit. 
In the environs of Cape Town, you constantly see the 
great American Aloe cultivated, thriving as luxuriantly as in 
its own continent, and yearly sending up its magnificent 
flower-stems, which, when they first appear, strongly suggest 
the idea of asparagus raised for a Brobdignag table. 
As I have devoted this chapter to the Botany of the 
Cape and its neighbourhood, I may introduce here some 
account of an excursion which, in company with my friend 
Harvey, I made to the Paarl, chiefly with the view of col- 
