SOUTHERN AFRICA. 
345 
fwelHng 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 tali and taper- 
ing ftems, like thofe of the Areca nut, or Mountain cabbage, 
were regular and well proportioned, as the Corinthian fliaft. 
Many of them ran to the height of five and twenty or thirty 
feet, without a leaf. It is fufficlently remarkable, that the 
three Strelitzias of Africa fhould be found in three diftind: fitu- 
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 dream 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 aiferted, that the 
animal, whofe name the river bears, occafionally appears in it, 
* But the mofl; elegant plant that occurred in the whole forefl:, was the native vine 
of Africa. This creeper ran to the very fuinmits of the higheft Geel-hout trees, and 
bore a fruit in fi?.e and appearance not unlike the Morclle cherry, feldom more than two 
or three in a clufter, of a veiy agreeable and delicate fubacid flavor. The leaves of this 
vine are fliaped like thofe of the ivy, dark green, and fmooth on tlie upper, and rather 
woolly on the iinder, furface ; not deciduous, but evergreen. 
Y y 
though 
