74 MEMOIR OF DR. EAR VET. 



stopped here on his way to India, two waggon-loads of plants. 

 There's liberality ! It is a great plague to gather seeds and 

 bulbs in a wild state, more so than can be imagined ; and to 

 my shame, be it spoken, I have gathered none, either for 

 Mackay or for Lord Mountnorris. Promises are like, &c. In 

 No. 46 of the Atlas published by the U. K. Society, you will 

 find Stellenberg. Muyrenberg, which figures as a village on 

 said map, consists of a turnpike and two farmhouses, at one of 

 which, with the sign of " The Gentle Shepherd of Salisbury 

 Plain," lives my friend Farmer Peck, with whom I breakfast 

 when I botanize in his neighbourhood, and a good breakfast he 

 gives, with silver bright, and linen white as snow. 



I spent the first day of this year in a little ravine of Table 

 Mountain, a beautiful spot, combining all the charms of a fairy 

 landscape with a fine and extensive view of the distant moun- 

 tains and plain, and of the Indian Ocean, with its blue waters, 

 silvery white strand, and bold rocky capes. Here grows Hemi- 

 telia Capensis, the most noble fern that has yet blessed my 

 sight, and the nearest to the tree ferns that Ave possess. A 

 dried fragment gives no idea of a trunk ten feet high, crowned 

 by a tuft of tripinnate fronds, measuring from four to six feet. 

 It is a truly charming plant. 



Strange that there are no land-shells to be found hereabout. 

 I have scarcely attended to those of the sea, but I have found 

 the bine snail shell, exactly similar to that of our own shores; 

 and 1 am not yet so vile as not to be pleased with meeting 

 something to remind me of your hateful island. Alas ! I shall 

 be reminded of it soon enough. Well, I have yet to see what 

 is in store for me. After all, perhaps, my destiny may be New 

 Zealand or Peru. 



Next it occurs to me to say that on Monday, if my legs be 

 well enough, I am to be at a public dinner given to the governor 

 by the people of Cape Town, to welcome him back. Two hun- 

 dred to sit down, precisely at seven. How pleasant in broiling 

 hot weather ; but what will not public spirit lead people to do ! 

 The weather begins to grow warm. December was cool, and 

 we had sometimes a fire in our parlour. 



