xlviii Presidents Address. [July 28, 



That he still collected is evident from occasional notices of his plants 

 being on sale in London. The last I have been able to find is the 

 significant intimation given in the botanical journal last cited, to 

 the effect that his sets are offered by Stevens, the natural history 

 agent, at half the price originally fixed for them. This was in 1851. 

 Evidently collecting of Cape plants, whether living or as exsiccata, 

 was no longer remunerative. Public attention in horticultural circles 

 was absorbed in the mania for tropical culture, especially of orchids. 

 Many fine collections of Cape species, which had once been the pride 

 of European gardens, died out slowly before the invasion of the hot- 

 house and the watering-can. Under pressure of poverty Zeyher 

 parted with his extensive typical herbarium to Dr. Pappe, in whose 

 house in Loop-street he nevertheless used to work at it almost daily 

 until he obtained regular employment in the Botanic Grardens, started 

 at Cape Town in 1848 by Dr. Adamson, Dr. Pappe, Messrs. Arderne, 

 Ross, Clarence, and others. But this garden was from the first 

 supported by the Grovernment in so inadequate a manner (^") that 

 the projectors found themselves obliged, in February, 1850, to dismiss 

 Zeyher, whose qualification was botanical knowledge rather than 

 horticultural skill, and find an ordinary gardener who understood 

 how to turn the place into a nursery, and make it pay for itself. Dr. 

 Berthold Seemann, knowing little of the hard necessity of the case, 

 was perhaps more witty than just when he wrote in reference to 

 Zeyher, on his visit in 1851, that the committee had ''passed a 

 resolution that the Botanic Glarden could do without a botanist." It 

 is true, however, that the system has never been improved, and the 

 Botanic Garden in Cape Town is to this ds,y compelled to peddle roses 

 and fuchsias and sixpenny-worths of seed to eke out its maintenaiice. 

 On leaving the Garden, Zeyher recommenced collecting seeds and 

 bulbs for shipment to Hamburg, growing the latter in a garden off 

 John-street, belonging to Mr. Kinzlies, an old Wurtembergian, who 

 gave him a lodging in his house. Subsequently he got employment 

 as a gardener to a gentleman who had a })lace between the foot of the 

 Devil's Peak and Pondebosch. Changes and removals once more 

 threw him adrift. Dr. Pappe and some few other benevolent friends 

 helped him from time to time, especially Mr. P. J. Kotze, who let 

 him have a piece of ground and a cottage on the estate Leeuwenhof, 

 where he thought he could make a living by growing vegetables. He 

 continued to collect a little, both alone and in company with Werner, 

 a German gardener, who afterwards was lost on Table Mountain, and 

 whose remains were never found. In December, 1868, small-pox 

 was rife in Capetown. Zej^her's patron wisely vaccinated his whole 

 household, but on urging the old man to take this precaution, he 

 declined, pointing to his slightly pitted face, and saying that, as he 

 had had the disease in Germany in his 3^outh, he was ])ro<)f against it 

 now. Only three days after he became ver}^ unwell. Ecklon came up 

 to see him, and prescribed some herbal drink. Next day the patient 

 grew worse, and Dr. Elack, whom Mr. AVatermeyer sent up to visit 

 him, pronounced the case hopeless. He died the next morning, and 

 was buried in the Episcopalian Cemetery in Somerset-road. Zeyher 



('") Tlio Govcriiuiciit at lirst promised to support the Gardens on the pound for 

 pound i^rinciplc, but when the projectors and public subscril)ed £87") they backed out 

 of their side ot the bargain. Vide "Minutes of the Botanic Garden Uominiboiouei's, 

 Dec. 3, 1851. 



