DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70300#0210
182 kirby’s wonderful museum.
ACCOUNT OF A SINGULAR SHRUB,
THE GIZANTEUM, DESCRIBED BY MR. THUNBERG, IN
HIS TRAVELS IN AFRICA.
Mr. Thunberg, the celebrated Swedish naturalist, was
informed, when at the Cape of Good Hope, that there grew
in one of the distant cantons of that country a certain shrub
which produced several articles of wearing apparel naturally,
ready made, and fit for use, such as gloves, very soft and fine,
fur caps, stockings of fine wool, &c. This account being
confirmed by the unanimous concurrence of all the inhabit-
ants of that district, determined our philosopher to go in
quest of the plant, though not with the expectation of finding
what the inhabitants asserted, but from a desire to account
for the phenomenon which had given risen to this fable.
After a considerable search, he at length obtained some
branches of this marvellous shrub ; its leaves were covered
with a fine, soft, thick, whitish down (which, on drying,
changes to a dirty, yellowish brown,) which gave them a good
deal the appearance of some kinds of velvet; the leaves were
of different forms, oblong, oval, or rounded, according to
their age, and the greater or less maturity they had attained;
the women split them—separating the two surfaces from
each other with great address, without dividing them at the
edges, and turning them carefully inside out. They thus
formed different kinds of gloves, bonnets, &c. of a rude
fashion, according to the size and form of the leaf, which
answered the purpose of defending the natives from the cold
very effectually : thus was explained this astonishing wonder,
as all others of a similar nature may be explained, by a little
attention to facts.
Mr. Thunberg found that this singular plant belonged to
the genus Bupleurum ; and as its species was unknown in
Europe, he gave it the name of B. Gizanteum.
As doubts still exist in the minds of many persons, that
die above is an exaggerated and fabulous account, we, for the
ACCOUNT OF A SINGULAR SHRUB,
THE GIZANTEUM, DESCRIBED BY MR. THUNBERG, IN
HIS TRAVELS IN AFRICA.
Mr. Thunberg, the celebrated Swedish naturalist, was
informed, when at the Cape of Good Hope, that there grew
in one of the distant cantons of that country a certain shrub
which produced several articles of wearing apparel naturally,
ready made, and fit for use, such as gloves, very soft and fine,
fur caps, stockings of fine wool, &c. This account being
confirmed by the unanimous concurrence of all the inhabit-
ants of that district, determined our philosopher to go in
quest of the plant, though not with the expectation of finding
what the inhabitants asserted, but from a desire to account
for the phenomenon which had given risen to this fable.
After a considerable search, he at length obtained some
branches of this marvellous shrub ; its leaves were covered
with a fine, soft, thick, whitish down (which, on drying,
changes to a dirty, yellowish brown,) which gave them a good
deal the appearance of some kinds of velvet; the leaves were
of different forms, oblong, oval, or rounded, according to
their age, and the greater or less maturity they had attained;
the women split them—separating the two surfaces from
each other with great address, without dividing them at the
edges, and turning them carefully inside out. They thus
formed different kinds of gloves, bonnets, &c. of a rude
fashion, according to the size and form of the leaf, which
answered the purpose of defending the natives from the cold
very effectually : thus was explained this astonishing wonder,
as all others of a similar nature may be explained, by a little
attention to facts.
Mr. Thunberg found that this singular plant belonged to
the genus Bupleurum ; and as its species was unknown in
Europe, he gave it the name of B. Gizanteum.
As doubts still exist in the minds of many persons, that
die above is an exaggerated and fabulous account, we, for the