94 
WILD ELDER. — BOONTJES KRAAL. 
10 April, 
in forwarding letters by tlie ordinary Cape post, an unnecessary 
length of time is often lost at the different post-houses on the road ; 
and, in that season when the rivers are suddenly swelled by the 
rains, the letter-bags, from want of bridges or ferry-boats, are de- 
tained two or three days on, what the boors very expressively term, 
" the wrong side" of the river. 
Early in the forenoon we took leave of this hospitable farmer, 
and set out for the Hot Baths, but were soon overtaken by rain, 
which continued with little intermission during the whole day. The 
roads were broad, and in excellent order; a condition for which 
they are more indebted to the nature of the soil than to the labor 
of man. The country is hilly, and abounding in low bushes ; the 
Rhus villosum, both here and in other parts of the district passed 
through in this excursion, forming one of the lightest and prettiest 
little trees that adorn the landscape. The Chilimithus oleaceus * grew 
in the hollows, and, in growth and foliage, bore a resemblance to 
the European olive-tree. Partridges, of a kind peculiar to the 
Cape, were frequently seen running between the low bushes, and 
a greater variety of birds now began to be observable. 
At the farm called Boontjes Kraal (Bean Kraal), we halted a 
minute to enquire the way. This gave me an opportunity of noticing 
a profusion of small black pebbles, of the shape and appearance of, 
but a little larger than, French beans, lying every where scattered in 
the road, and which had evidently been washed out of the earth by 
the rains, and, apparently, were of a ferrugineous quality. These 
naturally gave a name to the spot, being probably the first place 
at which they had been observed; although stones of the same 
* The Scoparia arborea of Linn^us. This, together with several other undescribed 
arboreous species, form a natural genus, quite distinct both in habit, and by a four-seeded 
capsule, from Scoparia ; and for which I would propose the name of Chilianthus, (a %iA(o< 
mille, quasi innumerabiles, et clvQo; Jlos,) on account of aU the species bearing numerous 
small white flowers, in large panicles, not unlike those of Sambucus nigra, the common 
elder-tree. From this resemblance, the different species have obtained, among the Dutch 
colonists, the general name of Wilde Flier, or Wild Elder, 
