142 TRAVELS IN 
coffee, and substituted by the peasantry for this berry. The 
strditzia regince. also, now in full and beautiful bloom, gre^7 
every where in wide-spreading patches in the vicinity of the 
Great Fish river, but not one of the new species, discovered 
about twenty miles to the northward of Zwart Kop's river, 
could be found among them. The cerulean blue nec- 
tarium of the reginse was uniformly faded, and its color 
seemed to decay by a short exposure to the weather, which 
did not appear to be the case with that of violet blue of the 
teretifolia. The seed of the reginos is eaten both by the Kaf- 
fers and Hottentots. A great variety of bulbous rooted 
plants were now springing out of the ground ; and several 
species of those elegant families the gladiolus, ixia, morc^a, 
and the iris, were in full bloom. That singular plant the 
tamus elephant opus, so called from a protuberance thrown 
from the root resembling the foot of an elephant, was met 
with only in this part of the country. Several species of 
xeranthemum and gnaplialium decorated the grassy plains 
with their brilliant colors of red, yellow, and silky white. 
The Dutch in the colony have given to these flowers the 
name of seven years' duration ; but in Europe we extend the 
idea to everlastings. 
In two days' travelling after leaving the mouth of the river, 
and skirting its banks, we came to the first ford. The moment 
we began to descend the heights towards the level of the 
river an extraordinary increase of temperature was felt ; 
and in the course of an hour the thermometer, which stood 
at noon at 72% had ascended to 102° in the shade, at which 
point it remained, at the ford of the river, for four hours. 
