I 
1810. LION MOUNTAIN. ig 
which I had seen nursed with great care in the green-houses 
of England. * 
A Kttle farther on, we came to some plants of the great Ameri- 
can Aloe {Agave Americana), in flower. This noble plant is frequently 
used for forming hedges; and when they stand close together? 
their thorny leaves present an impregnable barrier to cattle, and 
even to men. Their leaves, six feet long, and flower-stems of 
thirty feet in height, present a truly gigantic specimen of the plants 
commonly termed " flowers." Of these and the surrounding scenery 
I afterwards made a drawing. 
The road, winding up an ascent, leads over a rocky gorge, 
which joins Lion's Head to Table Mountain. This pass is defended 
by a block-house, and is called the Kloof a word of frequent 
^ 
* Such as, — 
Leonotis Leonurus 
Cassine Maurocenia 
Erica cerintho'ides 
Osteospermum spinescens 
Erica Petiverii 
Atraphaxis undulata 
Erica pubescens 
Kiggelaria Africana 
Athanasia crithmifolia 
Bubon gummifmim 
Athanasia parviflora , ' 
Watsonia alopecuroida 
Royena glabra 
Aristea cyanea 
Myrica quercifolia 
Echium fvuticosam 
Myrica serrata 
Polygala (Muraltia) Heisteria 
Cluytia piilchella 
Lightfootia subulata 
Cluytia Alaierno'ides 
Myrsine Africaiia 
Roella ciliaris 
Montinia acris 
Chironia baccifera 
Brunia nodiflora 
Chironia linoides 
Diosma villosa 
Passerifia Jiliformis 
Psoralea apliylla 
Borbonia lanceolata 
Salvia Africana 
Celastrus pyracanthus 
f As I have endeavoured to preserve the proper orthography of all the Dutch names 
and words, excepting a very few, it is necessary to apprise such readers as may be unac- 
quainted with that language, that the word kloof is pronounced as an Englishman woidd 
speak klofe, or kloaf ; the double a having no other sound than that of a long o, or the 
Greek u. The dipthong oe sounds exactly the same as the English oo ; thus, boek in 
Dutch has the same sound and meaning as book in English. On, in Dutch words, must 
be pronounced the same as otw in the English words new, how. G is always hard before e 
or i, as in get, and give. Y is always a vowel, having the sound of a long i, and lyk in 
Dutch, and like in English, have the same sound and meaning. The j is pronounced the 
same as y in English when a consonant; as Jong and young: or may be considered as an 
i, forming a dipthong with the vowel which follows it. 
