252 THE WELWITSCHIA PLANT. 



on, the original pair of leaves, having attained their full size, and a 

 hard, tough, fibrous consistence, do not die away, but gradually split 

 up into shreds ; the woody mass which bears them rises very little 

 higher, but increases horizontally both above and below the insertion 

 of the leaves, so as to clasp their base in a deep marginal slit or 

 cavity ; and from the upper side, at the base of the leaf, several 

 short flowering stalks are annually developed. These are erect, 

 dichotomously branched jointed stems, rising from six inches to a foot 

 in height, and bearing a pair of small opposite scales at each fork or 

 joint, each branch being terminated by an oblong cone, under the 

 scales of which are the flowers and seeds. The result is, that the 

 country is studded with these misshapen table-like or anvil-like 

 masses of wood, whose flat tops, pitted with the scars of old flowering 

 stems, never rise above a foot from the ground, but vaiy, according 

 to age, in a horizontal diameter of from a few inches to five or six 

 feet those of about eighteen inches diameter being supposed to be 

 already above a hundred years old." * 



These fantastic monstrous shapes were found by Dr. Welwitsch, 

 with their deeply-embedded roots, on the dry plateau of the Benguela 

 coast, in 15 40' south latitude. Herr Montein met with it in a 

 perfectly similar situation on quartzose soil, in the neighbourhood of 

 the Nicolas River, 14 20' south latitude; and Mr. Baines and Mr. 

 Anderson, in Dawaraland, between. 2 2 and 23 south latitude, in 

 the neighbourhood of Whalefish Bay, and in a district where never a 

 drop of rain falls. We may therefore place the habitat of this 

 remarkable plant between the 14th and 23rd parallels of south lati- 

 tude. The crown, when divested of its leaves, bears a close resem- 

 blance to a fungus. 



If we now approach the Cape of Good Hope the Cabo del 

 Tormentoso, or " Cape of Storms," of the early navigators we shall 

 observe a characteristic vegetation peculiar to a solid or stony soil, 

 sometimes hilly, but generally dry. It is in the desolate and barren 

 steppes situated within the confines of Caffraria that those splendid 

 * Brande, " Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art," iii. 1018. 1019. 



