1886.] Prpf^idmfh Addrrfifi, xxxv 



tier, and the farm at which Auge was living was attacked in the night, 

 and the inhabitants compelled to leave everything and iiy for their 

 lives. The blind old man, however, was not forgotten. Half led, 

 half carried, he was got away, and lodged in the care of the benevo- 

 lent Landdrost of Swellendam, who forthwith accepted the charge of 

 this old friend of his father's without a thought of repayment. 



Thus far I have condensed the account given by Lichtenstein. 

 What follows is so naif and pleasantly told that I must endeavour to 

 translate the author's narrative in fuU: — '* The old man having been 

 told we were coming to see him, had found his way to the front of his 

 cottage, and made polite excuses for his blindness and inability to 

 wait upon us. He was tall, still fairly upright, and his snow-white 

 hair hung about his shoulders. The sight of a blind person always 

 moves my compassion ; here dignified old age excited respect, which, 

 to me, was blended with reverence for one of the most skilful of 

 botanists. He gave me a brief and connected account of the hard- 

 ships he had so lately undergone, but dwelt on them far less than on 

 the kindness he had received from his present benefactor. He told us 

 that his health was so good that he did not anticipate death as very 

 near, and feared that he should for a long time be a burden to his 

 kind friend. He was grieved at the loss of his pension, since that 

 would have made him a less heavy charge to the good Landdrost. I 

 afterwards learnt that this excellent man had abstained from applying 

 to the Government for the renewal of Auge's pension purely out of 

 delicacy towards the old man, who might have thought his patron 

 grudged any part of the money expended on him. Subsequently a 

 mere recital of this part of my interview was sufficient to obtain from 

 the Governor the restoration of the pension with a small addition, 

 and thus my visit was at least so far advantageous that it rendered 

 the evening of the old man's life a little more easy and unclouded. It 

 was evident he still kept all his old enthusiasm for his favourite 

 science, and I was astonished to find his memory of the names ol: 

 plants so good. He was delighted to hear that I too was a collector 

 of plants, and told me of many which were to be found in the Duy- 

 velsbosch. He called them, however, by the older names used by 

 Burmann. He had almost entirely lost his native language, and 

 conversed in the Dutch patois of the colonists. He enquired anxiously 

 about the garden at Cape Town, asking whether this and that tree 

 planted by himself were growing well, with the same concern as if he 

 had been asking about the friends of his youth. ' Is my Heliconia 

 alba alive ? Is my Corallodendron as fine as ever ? ' (' ) I could answer in 

 the affirmative, and he begged me to describe them to him, how tall 

 had they grown, and how thick were they, adding that he should die 

 the happier if he could huifeel them once more. I had the pleasure 

 of being the first to tell him that Thunberg, in order that future 

 botanists should have a lasting memorial of his services, had named a 

 plant ' Augea capensis ' in his honour. The old man was almost angry 

 that I could not at the moment remember to what class it belonged, 

 for he sadly wished to know if it was one with which he was 

 acquainted. I went with him into his room, where everything was 

 very clean and in the nicest order, in charge of an old black slave, 



(") Meaning Strelitzia aiogusta, Thb. and Erythrina, Thb, It is satisfactory to be 

 able to add that both are alive and well in 1886. 



