1812. 
HOTTENTOT'S BREAD. 
147 
These mountains are the native soil of an extraordinary plant 
called Hottentots Brood (Hottentot's Bread).* Its bulb stands 
entirely above ground, and grows to an enormous size, frequently 
three feet in height and diameter. It is closely studded with angular 
ligneous protuberances, which give it some resemblance to the shell 
of a tortoise. The inside is a fleshy substance which may be com- 
pared to a turnip, both in consistence and color. From the top 
of this bulb arise several annual stems, the branches of which have 
a disposition to twine round any shrub within reach. The Hottentots 
informed me, that, in former times, they ate this inner substance, 
which is considered not unwholesome, when cut in pieces and baked 
in the embers. It will easily be believed that this food may not 
be very unlike the yam of the East Indies, since the plant belongs, 
if not to the same, at least to a very closely allied, genus f ; as the 
membranaceous capsules, with which it was at this time covered, 
clearly proved. 
supradecomposita. Pedunculi filiformes. Valvulas nudae orbiculatse integerrimae, basi 
cordatae. An R, sagittatm, Th. Fl. Cap. 2. p. 34-8. ? 
At this place I met with a shrub which occurs in various parts of the country ; it is 
not the only species of the genus Ehretia which I have found in Southern Africa. 
Wiretia Hottentotica, B. Catal. Geogr. 2117. Frutex sub-5-pedalis. Ramuli albidi. 
Folia petiolata obovata integerrima Isevia, margine scabro. Cymae pauciflorse extra- 
axillares. Flores purpurei. Laciniae corolla ovatae obtusae, marginibus vix conspicue 
tomentosis. Calyx profunde 5-fidus, divisionibus acutis subtomentosis. Bacca globosa 
flava tetrapyrena. 
* A representation of this plant, in the proportion of one fifth of its natural size, is 
given at the end of the present chapter, 
f Testudinaria, Salisb. 
By the liberality of my friend, Mr. R. A. Salisbury, I am enabled to anticipate a por- 
tion of his long-expected work on a general arrangement of plants according to their 
natural affinities. In that work, which will soon be given to the public, the present genus 
stands, along with six others, in his 3d section of the order Dioscoridece, or among those 
having a membranaceous pericarp, all the lobes of which are fertile. The name of 
Testudinaria is peculiarly appropriate, and is meant to express the resemblance which the 
bulb, or tuber, has to a tortoise. The following generic character is copied from that work. 
" Testudinaria. Petala in cyathum coalita, dein reclinata, oblonga, interiora parum 
latiora. Filamenta 6, longiuscula in hoc ordine. Antherae oblongae emarginulatae. 
Styli coaliti. Stigmata recurva, obtusa. Semina apice alata. Herbae in Promontorio 
Bonae Spei, 7 — 12-pedales. Radix in tuber gi'ande areolatum supra terram emineus. 
Caulis supeme volubilis, teres, I'igidus at quotannis periens. Folia alterna, reniformia, in 
u 2 
