JIG Annual Report of the S. A. Institution. 



exolio plants, and to express our hope that the Members of the 

 Institution will devote their attention largely to this subject, as 

 they have opportunity ; and we will be pardoned for particu- 

 larizing, as an example, the conduct of Mr. Von Ludwig, an 

 associate, and member ef your Council, who has deeply merited 

 the gratitude of his countrymen. We have lately received from 

 him, a list containing the names of no less than 207 distinct 

 species, which he is now attempting to naturalize, along with 

 many varieties of the common fruit trees. The number which 

 the colony had been successful in establishing, at the time 

 when Thunberg prepared his Flora Capensjs, cannot be con- 

 sidered as exceeding 158, possessing any claims to beauty or 

 utility. It may be perhaps discovered, that many others, and 

 even some of those now procured by Mr. Ludwig, already have 

 been tried in other cases without success ; and it is to be re- 

 gretted that we have not a detail of these unsuccessful experi- 

 ments; since the information to be derived from such is always 

 of great value, as pointing out the causes of failure, and tending 

 to secure-success in other attempts. Mr. Ludwig's list con- 

 tains a great proportion of the useful plants and trees culti- 

 vated in Europe, or adorninjr its forests. His attempts will, 

 we hope, in a short period, add much to the beauty and variety 

 of the ornamental planting, under which it is necessary to seek 

 •heller from the summer's heat, by affording a greater choice 

 of species to accommodate the different situations where such 

 is required, and will doubtless tend to confer on the colony, 

 the inestimable benefit of scattering useful timber over the 

 monotonous wastes of which so much of it consist*. Mr. Lud- 

 wig has also succeeded in introducing the Cochineal Insect, 

 and has remarked an interesting fact, in regard to its habits, 

 in its preference of the Cactus Lana, or common Turkish hV. 

 The Aloe plant of Barbadoes has also been introduced success- 

 fully by another individual; and the Cork tree by a third. 



In the science of Minerulogy— one probable locality of Fossil 

 Remains, belonging to a large mammiferous animal, has been 

 indicated in the Karroo. Two different individuals of the 

 species have been noticed by different observers, and various 

 fragments have been sent hither, part of which are now lodged 

 in the Museum. No such minute detail of their position has 

 reached us, as to determine Che aera of their deposition, i.e. 

 whether they belong to the ancient general collections, with 

 which so many districts of the world are strewed, or have been 

 produced by accidental circumstances of local eflcct. It may. 

 be inferred, that the catastrophe which deposited them must 

 either have been distant in time, and universal, or else sudden 

 and peculiar in its operation, for, by no occurrence of late date, 



