34 TRAVELS IN 
sun, the modest Ixia Cinnamomea, of which are two varieties^ 
one called here the Cinnamon, and the other the evening, 
flower, that has remained closed up in its brown calyx, 
and invisible during the day, now expands its small white 
blossoms, and scents the air, throughout the night, with its 
fragrant odour. The tribe of Lvias are numerous and ex- 
tremely elegant ; but none more singular than that species 
which bears a long upright spike of pale green flowers. The 
Iris, the Morcea, AnthoUza, and Gladiolus, each furnish a great 
variety of species not less elegant nor graceful than the Ixia. 
That species of Gladiolus, which is here called Africaner, is un- 
commonly beautiful with its tall waving spike of striped flovrers, 
and has also a fragrant smell ; that species of a deep crimson 
is still more elegant. A small yellow Iris furnishes a root for the 
table, in size and taste not unlike a chesnut. These small 
roots are called Uyntjes by the colonists, and that ©f the Apo- 
negeton distachion, which is also eaten, water ui/nijes. Of those 
genera which botanists have distinguished by the name of the 
liliaceous class, many are exceedingly grand and 'beautiful, 
particularly the Amaryllis, of which there are several species. 
The sides of the hills are finely scented with the family of ge- 
raniums ; the different species of which, exhibiting such va- 
riety of foliage, once started an idea that this tribe of plants 
alone might imitate in their leaves every genus of the vegeta- 
ble world. 
The frutescent, or shrubby plants, that grow in wild luxu- 
riance, some on the hills, others in the deep chasms of the 
mountains, and others on the sandy isthmus, furnish an endless 
variety for the labors of the botanist. Of the numbers of this 
