

AFT 



ha. Ml * Btrope; ml alo**j UM who*, of UM moa* northern shore* 

 o fnat a auailarity coatfaroes to be y i "A''|'. a "^ 1| lf STL 



Or^ aftraat*. and of olives ; wide plains cov*red with 

 t a^ lrUy ; Uo^ wood, of r.BoeM ~A ta^ and a 

 paw* I/H.M sMndM). iatarmiied with cypraaae*. myrtlea, arbutua, 

 aad fracranl tno heath* ifrica areomi), form the principal feature* 

 of UM Uadseape ; while the plain* are covered with the gum-cistus, 

 aad UM h in * awl rook* with odoriferous rock-rose*, palmetto trees, and 

 UM wild caper. In January and the early months of the year, when 

 UM donate is like that of the warm day* of our spring, the plains are 

 great with fraaa, and embellished with innumerable little flower* of 

 UM aweoootyWdoaous osas*, and the garden* are gay with the b)o**oin* 

 of UM h~iH J UM apricot, and the peach. Even in the summer 

 asaoa, whea all the more tialHTt<* plante have been dried up beneath 

 a scorching ran, there i* still UM oleander, with ito brilliant bunche* 

 of rosy flower*, by which are traced from afar the courses of the riven 

 oa UM * of which it love* to dwell, and those humid spots which, 

 from accidental circumstance*, being never dried up, are then a kind 

 of naaathls oatm On this northern coast the date palm i* first 

 found; bat it* fruit doe* not arrive at perfection, and it U chiefly 

 valued a* ad object of ornament to garden* and house*. 



The principal objects of cultivation in the Barbary States are a kind 

 of wheat (TrMcmm durum), the stem* of which are solid, and the grain 

 homy rather than farinaceou* ; barley, which the Moon give their 

 horses instead of oats; maice, cafire com (J/oletu joroswm), rice, 

 tobacco, olive*, orange*, and fig* of the most delicimi* quality; 

 , grape*, and jujubes, together with sweet melons and 

 They also grow the white mulberry for silkworms, a 

 of indigo (ludigaftra fflauea), cotton, sugar-cane, and most 

 D esculent tragatabla*. It is in the mountainous country, 

 of UM Barbary States, in the chain of Atlas, that the famous 

 timber grows <TA .jo rti//a), called, from the robatanceit produces, 

 UM aaadarach-tna, which i* almost imperishable, from which the 

 ceilings of the mosques an exclusively constructed, and which is 

 opposed to have been UM Bhittim Wood of Scripture. 



As *oon aa UM chain of Atlas i* passed, the scene begins to change ; 

 UM aumain ilrynes* of the climate on the northern borden of the 

 Onat Desert i. such that few tree*, except the date, can maintain an 

 si >!) It is, however, in thi* arid region, where rain seldom falls, 

 what* wheat refuses to grow, and even maize, barley, and caflre corn 

 afford the hnahandman a miserable and uncertain crop where the 

 bks*B from UM south an scarcely supportable by the native himself, 

 that this invaluable tree find* ite fitting station. It is here that the 

 gluiea of date palms form a screen impervious to the rays of the sun, 

 and cherish beneath their ahade the orange, the lemon, the pome- 

 granate, and the vine, the latter of which climbs to the summit of 

 their trunks by mean* of ite twisted tendril*. Although reared in 

 rmi*>aiil shade, all theaa fruits acquire a more delicious flavour than 

 in what would seem a more favourable climate. 



Egypt exhibit* a scene intermediate, a* it were, between the first 

 and the Us* of these descriptions ; but also presenting more the 

 appearance of a tropical count ry. European plant* begin to disappear ; 

 ! UM districts still watered by the Nile, we find all the richness of 

 i of the spring month* of Barbary ; abundance of rice, barley, 

 i ; rich laid* of sugar-canes ; olives, figs, vines, and plantains, 

 that have been introduced ; while in the hotter or drier, or more 

 nattiia, UM das* I* the chief object of the scenery. Nothing but 

 touted ami miserable-looking bushes are able in the open plain* to 

 contend with UM accumulating sand for the possession of the soil 

 In UM richer part* of the country we find the acacias which produce 

 ""I"*, Urge tamarisk-tree*, great quantities of the plante yielding 



At 

 the 



species), Intermixed with various 



barb* bstoagmg to tropical genera, all of which are either unknown 

 or vary ran in UM more northern pans of Africa. Cotton, coffee, 

 Win, awl tobacco an cultivated with the gnatent success. A( 

 Ta*fca ftnt b*gia* to appear a third race of palm* different froi 

 daw aad UM 





cardamom*, 

 faatare of African vegetetion within the 



that occupy UM interior of this continent like inland 

 as of Mad, an scarcely inhabited by any plant* except of the 

 nne of UM moat remarkable i* a gram called 

 gMwaMM), which wholly covers immense 

 aid to cam* intolerable annoyance to the traveller 



I. UM 



"here moisture exists in 

 flora partakes In a certain 

 Me, of the plants of India, In;' 



r : ,!-. if IV 



a* of the nawictdly bw.hah (Adm- 

 tha native a grateful drink ; huge 



AFRICA. 131 



cotton-tree* (Bombar pmlandmm), the trunk* of which project at the 

 base into great buttresses ; shrubs of richest verdure, large gramineoua 

 plants with branching items, impenetrable thickets extending into the 

 water, with thick groups of oil palm* (Ultra MH'MCCIUM), sago palm* 

 (Sagut), and other* of the amme majestic tribe. In the thickets, 

 number* of Oombrtto, of bindweeds, and of other climber* twine 

 among the branches of the trees, which they adorn with flower* of 

 white, or scarlet, or orange. On the branches of the forest trees grow 

 Daringly variou* genera of epiphytes ; tho laburnum of the colonists 

 (ColJartocorpuM jUfM/o) expand* its branches of golden flowers, and 

 replace* the senna of Alexandria ; in some places the wood* abound 

 in pine-apples, which, although not natives of the continent, have 

 established themselves as completely u in their native stations in 

 tropical America ; the plains are often covered with immense quantities 

 of the papyrus plant, to the exclusion of all others ; and in the regions 

 near the line a new feature is introduced by the chandelier-tree (Pa*- 

 damn ca*dtlabmm), which rises singly in the plain*, and divides ite 

 grotesque branches into repeated forks, the extremities of which are 

 crowned with long, rigid, channelled leave*, like those of the pine- 

 apple. 



With the general nature of the vegetation change also the species 

 that are cultivated for the food of man. In the tropical regions of 

 A fries, no waving fields of corn reward the In boum of the husbandman ; 

 the vine is unknown, the figs are of other and of useless specie*, and 

 of all the northern fruits the orange and the lime alone remain. In 

 their stead the cassava (Jatropka monition, the yam (IHeteorea). tl.- 

 pigeon pea (Cyfinu caja*), and the ground-nut {Ararhit hypogaa) are 

 farinaceous plants ; the papaw (C'arica papaya), the tamarind, and the 

 nitte or doura-tree (Parkin Africans), are the fruit* in some place* ; 

 the Senegal custard apple (Anona Saiegaleniu), the gray plum (/'arm- 

 ariuta), and the Safu, in others ; and the bread-fruit of Polynesia i* 

 represented by a large tree called musanga, the seeds of which are aa 

 agreeable as hazel-nuts. Besides these, were are in Sierra Leone, and 

 along the same coast, the remarkable cream-fruit, which, although . f 

 a moot poisonous family, yield* a wholesome and pleasant saccharine 

 juice; the water-vine (Telracera jxXo/oria), the stems of which aro a 

 sort of vegetable fountain, discharging when cut across a cool, limpid, 

 and refreshing fluid ; the negro peach (Sareoeepkaltu Africa***), a 

 brown succulent fruit, said to taste like a strawberry ; the monkey- 

 apple (AnitojiliyUca laarina), the drupe of which is, in flavour and 

 ire, between a nectarine and a plum ; and various species of pigeon- 

 plums (ChrytobalaiHu), with the mammee apple (Mammea Africana), 

 pilinmiiis (C'arpodintu), and star-apples (C'ArysnjiA.v/f m oboraiiim). 



As we approach the southern point of this continent, a new change 

 passes over the face of nature ; tropical form* disappear as they have 

 formerly appeared, and we lose the scenery of the cotton tree, the 

 baobab, the palm, and the chandelier tree ; not however to find tin -ir 

 places occupied by the plante of Barbary and the north, but 1.1 

 contemplate an order of vegetable productions ><> ilUti-rcnt. tlmt tlu-ir 

 very genera had been previously unseen : still tho same wi UK-met* of 

 and and drought occupies the centra of the r.mntry, but it i- n<> 

 longer covered with prickly grasses or waving thicket* of ] 

 The karroos of the Cape Colony are tho residence of fleshy, leafless, 

 distorted, shapeless tribe* of Stapelias, of Ifeaembrynn'h. . 

 Euphorbias, Crassulas, Aloes, and other succulent plants, each holding 

 to the soil by the weak support of a single wiry root, ami t'.v.lin^ 

 rather upon the dews of heaven than the moisture of the soil, a 

 situation to which they are admirably adapted by the want ..r 

 imperfect state of their evaporating pores, so that wh:<t<-\vr humidity 

 they are able to collect is parted with as slowly a* tho limited supply 



is furnished to them. Among these grow Htunt. .! luti-li. 

 specie* of heath (Erica), and succulent geraniums (Priaryanium), 

 strong-scented l.iu-kn ]>lante (JKotma), and a great variety of i-limbby 

 Componttr, The hill and rocks are scattered over with a remarkable 

 tribe of plante called Cycadacm, intermediate, as it were, between 

 ferns and palms ; the plains are permanently clothed with patches of 

 a nun-like plant called Rtflio ; while the whole country, after the 

 rains, teem* with the fugitive but lovely blosnoms of the I fin. !!> 

 Gladiolta, the IHta, the Satyrium, and the Oro/w. Plants of th.- 

 Protea tribe also, of which there are very many sjH-.-i, . f..r the first 

 time appear since leaving the country of Aliywinia, and un<l<-i the name 

 ..f \Vittp)Kiin (I'mlea argattta) supply tli inhabitants of Cape T..WM 

 with fuel. At <'] Town itself has been introduced the American 

 aim-, which, with its spiny rigid leaves of six feet in length, form* 

 impenetrable hedge*, more r*mblhig c>*MW-oV-/rt*; than a vegetable 

 barrier; and the oak* and stone-pines of Kum[ie have found a 

 congenial climate. 



are the more prominent features of the vegetation of ATii. .< 



Its islands partake more or lea* of the nature of the flora of the 



djaeent continent, modified chiefly on the west side by the cooling 



br*ui of the Atlantic, and on the east by the wide expanse of the 

 Indian and Southern oceans. In these spots 



absence of African sterility, In consequence of tip ir insular i>M<i<>n ; 

 and fpun thfir luxuriant vegetation we may judge what t: 

 Africa would I* if cither nature or the skill of man could miccc. <1 iu 

 r.,n,liifi!ig riven and streams where there are now only barrenness 

 and ill-. 



In addition to this general view of the natural hirtory of Africa 



