122 
TRAVELS IN 
of our oxen, were parts in the nodurnal concert that could not 
be faid to produce much harmony to us who were encamped in 
the midft of a foreft of which we could difcern no end. 
On the flope of a hill, towards the fouthern verge of the fo- 
reft, I diftinguiOied among the clumps of frutefcent plants 
feveral flowers of a Jirelitzla^ which I took for granted to be 
the reglnce^ but on a nearer approach it turned out to be a new 
fpecies differing remarkably in the foliage from the two already 
known. Inftead of the broad plantain-like leaves of thefe, 
thofe of the new fpecies were round, a little compreiTed, half an 
inch in diameter at the bafe, tapering to a point at the top, and 
from fix to ten feet high : the flowers appeared to be the fame 
as thofe of the reginae, the colors perhaps a little deeper, par- 
ticularly that of the nedarium, which was of a beautiful violet 
blue. I procured half a dozen roots, which are now growing, 
and likely to do well, in the botanic garden at the Cape. A 
beautiful plant of the palm tribe was growing near the ftrelitzia, 
from the pith of which the Hottentots were faid to make a kind 
of bread. It was a fpecies of %amia, apparently a variety of the 
cycadis defcribed by Mr. Mafl^bn. The leaves were of a glau- 
cous color and lanceolate ; the leaflets neareft the bafe pointed 
with one, thofe about the middle with two, and thofe at the 
extremities with three, fl:rong fpines. 
On the evening of the feventeenth we encamped on the ver- 
dant bank of a beautiful lake In the midft of a wood of fruitef- 
cent plants. It was of an oval form, about three miles in cir- 
cumference. On the weftern fide was a flielving bank of green 
turf. 
