SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
345 
fwelling or gathering, quickly brings it to a head, and the green 
fide afterwards as quickly heals it. I had an opportunity of 
feeing thefe effeds in more than one inftance. Not far from 
Plettenberg's bay, along the banks of a fmall rivulet, I met 
with a whole foreft of the Strelitzia Alba, whofe tall and taper- 
ing ftems, like thofe of the Areca nut, or Mountain cabbage, 
were regular and well proportioned, as the Corinthian fhafc. 
Many of them ran to the height of live and twenty or thirty 
feet, without a leaf. It is fufficiently remarkable, that the 
three Strelitzias of Africa fhould be found in three diftin£t fltu- 
ations, and at great diftances from each other ; and what is 
ftill more remarkable, that the white fpecies fhould grow fo 
very abundantly along the fide of one ftream of water, and 
not a fingle plant be found near any of the reft in the fame 
neighbourhood. From the great refemblance of this plant to 
the Banana tree, the peafantry call it the Wild Plantain *. 
From Plettenberg's bay we returned to the weftward, croffing 
many deep and dangerous rivers. Of thefe, the Kayman, or 
Crocodiles' river, was by much the moft difficult to pafs with 
waggons, the banks on either fide being feveral hundred feet 
high, fteep, and rocky. It is confidently alTerted, that the 
animal, whofe name the river bears, occafionally appears in it, 
* But the moft elegant plant that occurred in the whole foreft, was the native vine 
of Africa. This creeper ran to the very fummits of the higheft Geel-hout trees, and 
bore a fruit in fize and appearance not unlike the Morelle cherry, feldom more than two 
or three in a clufter, of a very agreeable and delicate fubacid flavor. The leaves of this 
vine are fiiaped like thofe of the ivy, dark green, and fmooth on the upper, and rather 
woolly on the under, furface ; not deciduous, but evergreen. 
y Y though 
