Geographical Botany. 253 



of South Africa and the peculiar characters of some of the more 

 prominent plants. Whether he describes the beauty of the Acacia 

 groves on the banks of the Gariep, the wide stretches of grassland 

 of the Kalihari. or the barren hills of the Karroo, he does it in 

 charming language. He notices where certain kinds of plants are 

 common, and when and where they disappear or are displaced by 

 others. 



As an example of his style. 1 may quote the description which 

 he gives of the plants which he collected when he crossed the 

 Witsenbergen Pass for the first time : — " On the rocky summit of 

 this mountain I found a great variety of plants, a large proportion 

 of which I had not met with before. The beautiful nodding red 

 flowers of L'rolca nana immediately caught my eye ; and a multitude 

 of new and interesting objects .seemed as if soliciting me to admire 

 them. 1 fancied they were crowding round me with complaints 

 against the want of taste, the cold indifference towards them and the 

 apathy which they experienced from everybody who passed their 

 wav. Some 1 fancied represented their having for many years pro- 

 duced blossoms of the most charming hues, and shed the softest 

 perfumes without any penson having deigned even to cast an eye 

 upon them. . . . Loaded on all sides with flowers and branches 

 of shrul)s. we descended to the plain ; and those who met us as we 

 were returning to Tulbagh might have thought, as in Macbeth, 

 that ' Birnam-wood was come to Dunsinane.' '" 



Not less beautiful is the account he gives of the impression 

 which the first glimpse of the Orange River made upon him. " The 

 first view to which 1 happened to turn myself, in looking up the 

 stream, realised those ideas of elegant and classic scenery which 

 are created in the minds of ix)ets, those alluring fancies of a fair\- 

 tale, or the fa.scinating imagery of a romance. The waters of the 

 majestic river, flowing in a broad expanse resembling a smooth 

 translucent lake, seemed, with their gentle waves, to kiss the shore 

 and bid farewell for ever, as they glided past in their way to the rest- 

 less ocean, bearing on their limpid bosom the image of their wood- 

 clothed banks, while the drooping willows leaned over the tide as if 

 unwilling to lose them."" 



That mav appear sentimental to some of us, but we must re- 

 member that he had crossed the arid regions between Karroopoort 

 and the Ciariep, and that his cattle had suffered much through want 

 of water. On the other hand, the poet in him never interfered with 

 his painstaking accuracy in recording every plant. It is for this 

 reason that his Calalogus Geographicus has always been and is still 

 a most valuable .source of information. 



Shortlv after Burchell had left the Cape a new era of Cape 

 Botany commenced, for in the next decade we find three able, 

 enthusiastic and most energetic botanists scouring the country and 

 collecting many thousands of plants. These three men were: 

 Ecklon, Zeyher, and Drege. 



Ecklon as well as Zeyher concentrated their energy on the 

 collecting and distributing of plants. One of Ecklon's collection.'^ 



