146 
PLANTS. 
April, 
vegetables were exceedingly cheap. The price of meat was equally 
low ; that of beef being no more than two stuivers a pound *, and of 
mutton, one schelling f for five pounds. But house-rent was even 
higher than at Cape Town. J In the immediate vicinity of GraafF- 
reynet, but little timber can at present be found suitable for the 
purposes of building. All planks and the larger beams are fetched 
from a considerable distance south-eastward, where they are cut in 
the forests about Baviaans river, and on the Boschberg. § 
The banks of the river were thickly covered with willows and 
Acacias ; many of which were clothed with a species of Clematis 
climbing upon their highest branches, while others were decorated 
with festoons of an elegant species of Periploca, the beautiful shining 
dark-green foliage of which, was interspersed with a profusion of 
fragrant white flowers : this plant often grew so luxuriantly that 
it quite concealed the tree upon which it entwined itself The 
branches of these Acacias were sometimes ornamented with a hand- 
some Loranthus, and two or three kinds of Missletoe. Another re- 
markable plant found on these banks, is a climbing sorrel, which 
often mounts by the aid of other shrubs, to the height of fifteen feet. || 
* One penny English currency, or, at this time, less than three farthings sterling, 
f Six pence English currency, or four pence sterlmg. 
J A further account of Graaffreynet and its natural history, belongs more properly 
to a later period of my journal ; for which it is therefore reserved. 
§ In the forests on this mountain, I found, at a subsequent period of my travels, a 
beautiful flowering tree, remarkable, not only for rivalling our Laburnum in profusion 
of bunches of fine yellow flowers, but as an instance of what I have formerly stated 
respecting the features of Cape Botany (Vol. I. p. 182.), as this tree bears a close re- 
semblance to one which is peculiar to Japan, Sophora Japonica. It sometimes attains 
the height of thirty feet, but produces flowers at a much smaller size, and even in the 
deepest shade of the foresl. It is the 
Sophora sylvatica, B. Catal. Geogr. 3138. Arbor pulcherrima sub-trigintipedalis 
(ssepe frutex) glabra. Ramuli virides. Folia pinnata sub-sexjuga cum imparl. Foliola 
opposita ovalia, vel obovata, apice rotundata. Racemi vix foliis longiores multiflori. 
Flores flavi confei-ti longius pedunculati. Vexillum obcordatum subreflexum; alee 
patentes. Legumen membranaceum compressum polyspermum (semina circiter 12) 
per suturam superiorem alatum, vel margine tenui auctum. 
II Riimex [Acetosa] scandens, B. Catal. Geogr. 2890. Radix tuberosa. Caules' 
ramosi scandentes. Folia petiolata sagittata acuminata. Panicula terminalis divaricata 
