SOUTHERN AFRICA. 35 
class of naturalists, who have visited the Cape, none have re- 
turned to Europe without having added to his collection 
plants that were neither described nor known. The eye of a 
stranger is immediately caught by the extensive plantations of 
the Protea Argentea^ whose silver colored leaves, of the soft tex- 
ture of satin, give it a distinguished appearance among the 
deep foliage of the oak, and still deeper hue of the stone 
pine. It is singular enough that although the numerous species 
of Frotea be indiscriminately produced on almost every hill 
of the colony, the silver tree should be confined to the feet of 
the Table Mountain alone, a circumstance that led to the 
supposition of its not being indigenous to the Cape ; it has 
never yet. however, been discovered in owy other part of the 
world. The tribe of heaths are uncommonly elegant and 
beautiful: they are met with equa,lly numerous and flourish- 
ing on the stony hills and sandy plains ; yet, unless raised 
from seed, are with difficulty transplanted into gardens. 
Doctor Ronburgh found at least 130 distinct species between 
the Cape and the first range of mountains. Little inferior to 
the heaths are the several species of the genera to which 
botanists have given the names of Poli/gala, Brunia, Diosma^ 
Borbonia, Clifortia, and Asparagus ; to which might be added 
a vast variety of others, to be enumerated only in a work 
professedly written on the subject. 
The peninsula of the Cape affords but a narrow field for the 
inquiries of the Zoologist. The wooded kloofs or clefts in the 
mountains still give shelter to the few remaining troops of 
wolves and hyenas that not many years ago were very trouble- 
some to the town. The latter, indeed, generally shuns the 
habitations of men ; but the former, even yet, sometimes ex- 
p 2 
