152 TRAVELS IN 
hard dry soils, as will also two or three of the larger kind of 
proteas. The planting of trees and hedge rows would furnish 
a supply of wood for fuel, and other useful purposes, which 
is at present extremely scarce and exorbitantly dear. Avenues 
of oak trees, plantations of the w hite poplar, and of the stone 
pine, are to be seen near most of the country houses not very 
distant from the Cape, and have been found to thrive most 
rapidly. It is true, the timber they produce is generally 
shaken and unsound ; but the oak which has been introduced 
into the colony appears to be that variety of the Quercus 
Robur known m England by the name Durmast oak, much 
of which grows in the New Forest, and is but of little estima- 
tion among ship-builders. It is distinguished by the acorns 
growing in clusters, and each haying a long foot stalk. The 
larch, whose growth in Europe is rapid, and yet the timber as 
good or better than any of the pine tribe, would be an acqui- 
sition and an ornament to the present naked hills of the Cape ; 
and the beech would no doubt thrive in those places where 
the poplar does so well. 
There can be little doubt but a great variety of exotic plants 
might be introduced with success into the colony. The tea- 
shrub, for instance, is already in the colony, and seems to 
thrive equally well as in China ; it is a hardy plant, and 
easily propagated, and the soil, the climate, and general face 
of Southern Africa, bear a strong analogy to those provinces 
of China to which it is indigenous. Three years ago a small 
coffee plant was brought from the island of Bourbon, and is 
now in full berry, and promises to succeed remarkably well ; 
the sugar cane equally so. The dwarf mulberry seems to 
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