AFRICA. 5^ 
banks of the river, when my admiration was 
excited by the fight of a magnificent plant, 
the moft beautiful I bad ever contemplated ; 
but I was obliged to raife my head in order to 
admire it. It was a H!y feven feet in height, 
which, waving majeftically on its flexible 
ftem, breathed forth its dehcious odour. 
On the upper part of its ftraight tapering 
ftem were difplayed. In elegant order, thirty* 
nine corollas or flowers, fix of which were 
half blown, eighteen in full bloom, and fifteen 
^eady to open. Thofe which had attained to 
their complete fize formed a calyx, a third 
larger than that of the white lilies of Europe. 
Their petals, of a beautiful flaxen grey on the 
outfide, and white as fnow within, were edged 
with a crimfon border, and were fet off by a 
piftil and ftamina, which in colour equalled 
the brighteft carmine. The ftem, feven feet 
in height, was, where thickeft, fix inches in 
jcircumference. Reddened on the fide towards 
the fun, which had given it a vinous tint, it 
was green every where elfe, and bore leaves 
three feet in length, and in breadth three feet 
and a half. In a word, this plant, produc(ed in a 
folimde, j^nd pure a§ the fun which had em- 
belliflied 
