from the ground, but vary, according to age, in a horizontal diameter of from a few inches to five or six feet--those of about eighteen inches diameter being supposed to be already above a hundred years old."[109] These fantastic monstrous shapes were found by Dr. Welwitsch, with their deeply-embedded roots, on the dry plateau of the Benguela coast, in 15° 40´ south latitude. Herr Montein met with it in a perfectly similar situation on quartzose soil, in the neighbourhood of the Nicolas River, 14° 20´ south latitude; and Mr. Baines and Mr. Anderson, in Dawaraland, between 22° and 23° south latitude, in the neighbourhood of Whalefish Bay, and in a district where never a drop of rain falls. We may therefore place the _habitat_ of this remarkable plant between the 14th and 23rd parallels of south latitude. The crown, when divested of its leaves, bears a close resemblance to a fungus. [Illustration: VEGETABLE LIFE OF CAPE COLONY. 1. Aloe verrucosa. 2. Aloe soccotrina. 3. Aloe ciliaris. 4. Aloe arborescens. 5. Aloe plicatilis. 6. Gladiolus blandus.] [Illustration: VEGETABLE LIFE OF CAPE COLONY. 1. Helichrysum fruticosum. 2. Erica Cavendishiana. 3. Protea longifolia. 4. Todea Africana.] [Illustration: VEGETABLE LIFE OF CAPE COLONY. 1. Pelargonium hederæfolium (Ivy-leaved Geranium). 2. Oxalis rosacea (Wood-Sorrel). 3. Pelargonium glaucum. 4. Pelargonium zonale (Zone-leaved Geranium). 5. Pelargonium tricuspidatum.] If we now approach the Cape of Good Hope--the Cabo del Tormentoso, or "Cape of Storms," of the early navigators--we shall observe a characteristic vegetation peculiar to a solid or stony soil, sometimes hilly, but generally dry. It is in the desolate and barren steppes situated within the confines of Caffraria that those splendid herbaceous bulbous plants display their beauties, which are now familiar to our English gardens under the names of Gladiolus, Oxalis, Ixia, and Tulbaya. To those magnificent ornaments of the floral world we must add some less known plants, remarkable in other respects; such as the _Mollugo cerviana_, which, with a few Ficoideæ, form the almost exclusive nourishment of the herbivorous animals belonging to these countries. The Gramineæ are rare in the plains of Cape Colony, but, on the other hand, they contain a number of oleaginous plants included in divers families. Here, for instance, are those singular _Compositæ_, whose stems so closely resemble waxen tapers; several Ficoideæ, of which some species--as, notably, the _Mesembryanthemum edule_, or Hottentot's Fig, distributed over the interior of Southern Africa, and the _Mesembryanthemum tuberosum_--are eagerly sought by the Hottentots, Caffres, and natives generally, who eat the fruits of the former and the roots of the latter; the _Stapelia hirsuta_, or Carrion Plant, and several others of the same genus, whose carrion-smelling flowers are singularly handsome, though their odour is most offensive; a great