silvery hairs. They abound in sandy places, and frequently cover the plains in widely spreading 
patches. But the grandest of the African Proteacee are the species of the genus Protea, the 
type of the order; and the P. cynaroides of our plate is remarkable for the great size of its 
flowers in proportion to the height of the stems. Its stems are indeed stout and woody, but 
they are so short and simple, often not rising six inches above the soil, that we can scarcely 
term the plant a shrub. Yet the flowers are larger than those of much taller species. By 
contrasting this plate with the figures of P. mellifera, an idea may be formed of the difference in 
aspect between plants of the same genus, in this sportive family. In both, the heads of flowers 
have a coloured involucre ; but one is a tall branching shrub, blossoming at every fork ; the 
other bears a single artichoke-like head of flowers on a short and simple stem. 
This Plate ends our short series of the Plants of South Africa, but we cannot conclude these 
brief notices of South African Vegetation without directing attention to the ornamented title, in 
which some Cape flowers have been very happily grouped together into a wreath. Here we 
perceive the same fidelity of pencilling and brilliancy of colour which characterise the other 
pictorial embellishments of this volume. The number of flowers composing this wreath 
precludes our entering at large into a description of each; but all are painted with so much 
truth to nature that no person who has resided at the Cape can mistake any of them. In the 
front of the wreath is seen a bold cluster of the flowers of the Belladonna Lily. At the right 
hand corner is a knot formed by two blossoms of Sparavis, the yellow flowers of an Ovaiis, the 
deep purple, ocellated flowers of Babiana rubro-cyanea, the pale blue of Plumbago capensis, and a 
single blossom of the red variety of Disperis capensis. The remainder of this side is occupied by 
a raceme of Gladiolus blandus. On the left hand we observe two crimson species of Ovalis 
and a dark purple variety of Gladiolus viperatus. The latter flower lies partially across the 
petals of Disa grandiflora, one of the noblest of terrestrial Orchidee. Above this is the 
six-rayed star of Hypowis stellata, beside which is the three-petalled Vieusseuxia Pavonia. The 
remainder of the side is composed of the crimson Gladiolus Watsonius, through which Phanbago 
is wreathed ; while a single blossom of the yellow variety of Désperis capensis, the ‘bonnet 
flower” of the Colonists, exhibits its hooded petals and acuminated sepals among the graceful 
flowers of the Plumbago. Several of these plants have already been noticed; the others, 
belonging to tribes untouched elsewhere in this volume, afford us just such further glimpses of 
the Cape flora, as make us regret that our talented Authoress has closed her labours so soon, 
and left so many striking forms unfigured. 
The Plant represented in the next page, though not strictly belonging to this work, being a 
native, not of South Africa, but of Sierra Leone on its Western Coast, possesses particular 
claims for introduction here. The first notice of it, is contained in the Appendix to the Report 
of the Court of Directors of the Sierra Leone Company of 1794, page 173, by Professor Adam 
Afzelius who, under the head of the “ Cream Frurr” observes, that it is larger than the 
Bread Fruit, quite round, and yields when wounded a quantity of fine white juice resembling 
sugar or the best milk, of which the natives are very fond, using it to quench their thirst. 
Mr. Brown quotes the abovementioned work in his Appendix to Tuckey’s Narrative of 
the Expedition to the river Congo, p. 449, and remarks that the Cream Fruit of Sierra 
Leone probably belongs to an unpublished Genus of the natural order Apocinee. His 
