1811. 
GREAT THORN-RIVER. — DOVES. 
213 
persed in every district, and in all situations ; but more especially 
in the hot arid plains which occupy so large a portion of this terri- 
tory. Of these it may be asserted, that by much the smaller number 
are known in Europe. 
At half-past nine at night, we arrived at the Groote Doorn-rivier 
(Great Thorn-river), after travelling twenty miles, which is accounted 
a full day's work for oxen. * 
IGth. Day-light this morning showed us that we had taken up 
our station near the dry bed of a river, in a very picturesque shel- 
tered spot, surrounded by Acacia-trees [Doornhoom) twenty feet in 
height. The soil here is entirely sand. 
In the midst of the unvaried and treeless landscape of the 
Karro, the clumps of Thorn-trees, which occur chiefly by the rivers, 
were as grateful to the traveller as the Oases in the sandy desert. 
Their light airy foliage gave a cheerfulness to the scene ; while the 
cooing of turtle-doves f , in the heart of an uninhabited waste, was a 
sound that, being unexpected, was the more soothing and fascinat- 
ing. 1 sat on the dry bank for a long time, listening with delight to 
their gentle, plaintive note. For the sake of a little water, which 
still remained in a small puddle in the bed of the river, this place 
was frequented by a few birds j among which were, the Musch-vogel 
* The plants found in this day's journey, were 
Poa spinosa 
Viscum Capense : var. Cat. Geog. 1 207. 
Aphyte'ia kydnora % 
Androcymbhim volutare. B. C. G. 1215. 
So named from its two leaves being 
curled back in the manner of the vo- 
lutes in the capital of the Ionic col umn. 
I Columba i-isoria. Lin. Sys. Nat. 
Eriocepihalus 
Pteronia 
Chrysocoma 
Loranthiis 
Lapeyrousia 
Arctotis 
Crasstda 
Sesaiiiiiin, Sic. 
J Aphyte'ia viiJticcps, B., is a new species, found in the more western parts of this Karro, and of which 1 
received a specimen from my friend Hesse, to whom it had been sent from the district of Clanwilliam or the 
Elephant's River. It is easilj' distinguished, by a subt erraneous stem, about two inches long, clothed with a 
few large scales, as in all radical parasitic plants, and producing, in a close head, several flowers, (in my 
specimen, five,) which had not the appearance of being succeeded by a seed-vessel of a magnitude at all pro- 
portionable to that of A. Hydmra. 
