39 



E. 

 REMARKS 



ON CERTAIN PLANTS IN THE SOUTH OP AFRICA, AND ON A PECULIA- 

 RITY OF THE INHABITANTS OF THAT REGION. 



So large a number of plants, at the Cape of Good Hope, and in the ad- 

 joining region, are destitute of fragrance that it has been said: " In the 

 South of Africa flowers have no smell." [See Colebrooke's State of the Cape, 

 p. 158. sec. Malte-Brun, Vol IV. B. LXX.] And while Oriental perfumes are 

 withheld, the STAPELIAS abound, and yield a savour that is agreeable to the 

 degraded Hottentot. Writing to me on this subject, my father says : " la 

 Donn's Catalogue are given 55 Stapelias, all of which have been brought 

 from the Cape of Good Hope only; and as far as I am acquainted with this 

 plant and its varieties, of which I have had several, they are all very disa- 

 greeable in smell. I now have in my green-house a STAPELIA hirsuta, as 

 Dr. Thornton calls it in his Temple of Flora, and it has often been blown by 

 the flies which it attracts." 



In a Communication, with which I have favoured by Dr. S. L. Mitchill, 

 on the alleged peculiarity of the Boschmen, the Dr. writes: " Idiosyncrasies 

 in regard to the sense of smell are numerous. There are individuals of the 

 human family who have not the power of distinguishing odours of any kind. 

 I have known several such persons ; and they are in a situation, analogous 

 to those who are born deaf and blind. It has been supposed that brute 

 animals have not the ability to distinguish aromatick emanations ; but the 

 proof of this conjecture is merely negative. It is told of Louis XIV. of 

 France, that perfumes were generally unpleasant to him ; and certain Asia- 

 ticks, in ancient times, employed assa foctida as a condiment, calling the 

 very substance which we have nicknamed Stercus diaboli, the food of the 

 gods." Wifti his characteristick learning, the Dr. then cites the Tartars, 

 and the St. Kilda Islanders, as distinguished by the same peculiarity, which 

 is attributed to the natives of South Africa. 



Whatever may be the fact, in reference to the particular example here 

 illustrated, the general truth that has been alleged is certainly demonstra- 

 ble : The vegetable families subserve the wants of man, as he exists, in dif 

 ferent regions of the earth. 



