66 MEMOIR OF DR. HARVEY. 



off to the mountain on an exploring excursion, bending niy 

 way towards where I saw a tempting ravine with a waterfall. 

 Though it was bright sunshine, yet the air was cool and bracing, 

 so I walked smartly, and soon reached the end of the town. 

 First, I saw hedges of one of the fleshy tilings in Plassey green- 

 house. Its African locality precludes the idea of its being a 

 cactus. When it blows I shall know its name. On I went, 

 picking heaths in variety, and Diosmas two or three ; but the 

 most striking objects were the Proteas, of which I gathered 

 several. Moreover I passed through fields of our large Briza 

 (trembling grass), and saw numbers of other garden things such 

 as red geraniums and Ixias, in variety of all colours and sizes. 

 Orchidete of preposterous forms, and Umbelliferse ; but such 

 oddities ! Fancy a star of leaves spread quite flat on the ground, 

 with four or five sessile flowers stuck in the centre. Polygalas 

 " various and beautiful", and Lobelias very pretty. Every blade of 

 grass in fact had something peculiar. But I fixed on the JRoella 

 as the plant you would most like. It has a stem some four 

 inches high, glandular, and numerous glandular, hairy, oblong 

 leaves. A large single flower, white as the purest snow, sits on 

 a slender stalk, and in the sunshine spreads into a cup-shaped 

 corolla. Six graceful styles, of singular length. Now it struck 

 me as utterly simple, graceful, and pure. The view from the hill 

 was very beautiful. The bay in the foreground, bounded by noble 

 mountains, and the town beneath my feet, white and regularly 

 built. A very fine panoramic view of the capital of the colony 

 and its environs. On ray return found our party at breakfast, 

 and I exhibited my spoils, to their great diversion. 



After breakfast William proceeded to Baron Lud wig's, with 

 his letters of introduction from Sir William Hooker. "The 

 door," he says, " was opened by a little fairy of Malay blood, 

 about twenty inches high, fine bronze colour, with black, ropy 

 hair." " The Baron," he writes to his friend Mr. Ward, " is a 

 wealthy old gentleman, as liberal, generous, and enthusiastic as 

 ever lived, a man after your own heart. He has an extensive 

 garden, laid out with a view of bringing together the plants of 

 South Africa, not forgetting such exotics as he can get from his 

 friends in other countries. The borders just now present a 

 glorious feast of Ixise, Babianse, &c, in countless colours and 



