344 TRAVELS IN 
that different predispositions are inherent in the different 
varieties of the species. 
It should seem, however, that some principle does exist in 
these highly elevated situations of Southern Africa, which 
sheds its influence on the animal, and even on the vegetable 
part of the creation. The withered stem of a liliaceous plant, 
apparently the same as that found on the banks of the Orange 
river, was seven feet long, and crowned with an umbel of more 
than fifty flowrets, each having a peduncle or foot-stalk of 
eighteen inches in length, making the diameter of the umbel 
to exceed that of three feet. The bulb, of which I could but 
conveniently carry a few, was as large as the human head. 
Of this enormous lily the people gave an account, not unlike 
that of the fictitious Upas of Java, rendered famous by a re- 
lation of it inserted in the notes to Doctor Darwin's fanciful, 
yet classic, poem of the Botanic Garden. They say, with re- 
gard to the lily, that the juice of its bulb is a strong poison; 
that the leaves occasion sudden death to the cattle which may 
chance to eat them ; and that if small birds should happen 
to perch on its blossoms, they instantly roll off lifeless to the 
ground. A few of the bulbs of this specious plant arrived 
safe in England, where they have blossomed as freely as in 
their native soil. Another species of amarylhs, called by 
botanists the disticha, common on all the mountainous parts 
of the colony, was now on the Khamies berg throwing out 
its long broad leaves in opposite pairs, forming the shape of 
a fan. Both the bulb, and the leaves of this plant, have been 
ascertained to be, without any preparation, most virulent 
poisons, that act on the animal system, whether taken into 
