122 
TRAVELS IN 
of our oxen, were parts in the nodturnal 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 diftinguifhed among the clumps of frutefcent plants 
feveral flowers of a Jirelitzia^ which I took for granted to be 
the reghice^ 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 compreffed, 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 reginse, 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 zamia, apparently a variety of the 
cycadis defcribed by Mr. Maflx)n. 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, ftrong 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 ftielving bank of green 
turf, 
