SOUTHERN AFRICA. 303 
Candles being an unfafe article to tranfport by land, carriage 
are feldom brought out of the country ; but a vegetable wax, 
colleded from the berries of a fhrubby plant, the myr'ica cerifera^ 
plentiful on the dry marfliy grounds near the fea-fhore, is fome- 
times fent up to the Cape in large green cakes, where it may be 
had from a fhilling to fifteenpence a pound. The tallow to be 
purchafed at the Cape is barely fufficient for the confumption of 
the town and the garrifon, and the candles made from it arc 
feldom lower than fifteenpence a pound. 
Aloes. 
This drug Is extraded from the common fpecles of aloe known 
by the fpecific name of perfoUata^ and is that variety which, 
perhaps on account of the abundant quantity of juice it con- 
tains, botanifts have diftinguifhed by the name of fuccotrina^ 
though vulgarly fuppofed to have taken the name from the 
illand of Socotra, where this drug is faid to be produced of 
the beft quality, in which cafe, at all events, it ought to be 
Jbcotrina, 
Large tracts of ground, many miles in extent, are covered 
with fpontaneous plantations of this kind of aloe, and efpecially 
in the diftridt of Zwellendam, at no great diftance from MoiJel 
Bay. In this part of the country the farmers rear few cattle or 
fheep, their ftock confifting chiefly of horfes ; and they formerly 
cultivated a certain quantity of corn, which they delivered at a 
fmall fixed price, for the ufe of the Dutch Eafl; India Company, 
at 
