248 
The Garden Magazine, June, 1923 
AFRICAN LILY (Agapanthus umbellatus) 
Shades of blue, varying to white 
cheering name—Bonae Spei—the Cape of Good Hope. That grand 
old Elizabethan sea-dog, Sir Francis Drake, described it in 1580 as 
“a most stately thing, the fairest cape we saw in the whole circumfer¬ 
ence of the earth.” And out of numberless points of land on the earth’s 
surface it has appropriated the generic name of “The Cape.” 
In 1503, a Portuguese, Antonio de Saldanha, put into what is now 
Table Bay. He was the first European to land on Cape soil and found 
it to be a very favorable watering place for ships. Later it became 
famous as such and in old books is referred to as Saldanha Bay and 
Bonae Spei. On their voyages to and from India the Portuguese oc¬ 
casionally put into Table Bay but to them the Cape was merely a land¬ 
mark—much dreaded for the storms that raged round it—to be sighted 
and gladly passed by. On one occasion (in 1510) at least they fell 
foul of the inhabitants and the returning first Viceroy of the Portuguese 
Indies, Francisco de Almeida, and sixty-five of his followers were killed 
in an attack on a native village. If the Portuguese ever investigated 
the natural resources of the Cape, which is unlikely, history has pre¬ 
served no mention of it. 
The power of Portugal began definitely to wane about 1580 and 
then commenced the struggle between the 
Dutch and English for the mastery of the 
seas. In 1591 the first English ships, three 
in number, under Admiral Raymond, put 
into Table Bay, owing to sickness among the 
crews, and remained there a month. These 
were followed in 1598 by two Dutch ships, 
the Lion and the Lioness commanded by 
Cornelis Houtman. Queen Elizabeth, on 
December 31, 1600, granted a Royal Char¬ 
ter to the English East India Company. 
The Dutch formed a similar company in 
March, 1602; the French in 1604; and the 
Danes in 1612. My readers may think 
mention of these old trading companies of 
little moment in this connection, but it can- 
P. angulosum, Martyn in his 
“Plantae Rariores” published in 
1728, gives a good colored figure 
opposite page 28 under the name 
of “Geranium africanum arbores- 
cens folio anguloso, etc.” The 
plant seems to have reached Eng¬ 
land a few years previously. 
The Ivy-leaf Pelargoniums are 
derived from P. peltatum which is 
to be found from a little east of 
Cape Town eastward to Natal. It 
is well figured by Caspar Comme- 
lin in his “ Praeludius Botanicum 
“Geranium africanum foliis asari, 
year 1700. 
The Zonale or Bedding Geraniums are descended from P. zonale and P. inquinans 
which grow wild around Port Elizabeth, the Algoa Bay of the Portuguese, and else¬ 
where in the more eastern parts of the Cape. A good illustration of the first-named 
is given by Caspar Commelin on page 51, fig. 1, of the work above referred to under 
the name of “Geranium africanum arborescens Alchemillae hirsuto folio floribus rubi- 
cundis” and Commelin states that the seeds had been received in 1700, from Governor 
Wilhelm Adrian van der Stel. The other species (P. inquinans) was growing in 
English gardens about 1718, and Martyn, under the name of “Geranium africanum 
arborescens Malvae folio lucido, etc.” gives an excellent colored figure of it opposite 
page 3, in the work already referred to. Maybe these facts and references to the first 
known figures may interest the readers who have a penchant for history. Be this as 
it may many will envy one so fortunate as to see these famous plants in their native 
haunts. 
KAFFIR LILY (Clivia miniata) 
Orange-scarlet with yellow throat 
Plantarum,” page 52, fig. 2, published in 1703, as 
etc.” and he says that seeds were received in the 
Six Friends 
for which 'We thank 
South Africa 
S IGHTED in 1487 by Bartholomew Diaz on his return voyage to Portugal after he had been 
driven by storms as far east as Algoa Bay, and circumnavigated by Vasco da Gama ten years 
later, the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope marked an epoch in the world’s history. A new 
all sea route to India was found, and the wealth of the Indies, barred by the presence of the 
Crescent in Constantinople and the region bordering the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea, 
was accessible to the Christian sea-roving nations of western Europe of which at the time 
Portugal was in the lead. Diaz from his bitter experience named this southern headland of 
Africa the Cape of Storms, but his king, from the promise of good things to come, gave it a more 
GUERNSEY LILY (Nerine sariensis) 
Brilliant crimson with particu¬ 
larly long, conspicuous stamens 
