Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 81.djvu/435

Rh surpassed. For scenic beauty the garden at Melbourne deserves a high rank among the great botanical gardens of the world.

After a long voyage of twenty-six days, we arrived at Durban, the principal port of South East Africa. Here I was the guest of Dr. J. B. McCord, a medical missionary, and a fellow alumnus of Oberlin College, whose knowledge of South Africa, and especially of Zululand, greatly facilitated my investigations.

At the botanical garden I met the director. Dr. J. Medley Wood, now an old man, and Mr. J. Wylie, the curator, who is. particularly interested in palms and cycads. Mr. Wylie at once became interested in my work and not only helped me with my study of the cycads at the

garden, where the collection of Encephalartos is the largest and finest in the world, but he accompanied me into the field and sent a Zulu from the garden to be my guide and factotum during my stay in Zululand.

There are only two genera of cycads in Africa, Encephalartos and Stangeria, and they are found only in South Africa. I found both genera in Zululand and secured an abundance of material for further study.

The Zulus are a superior race, both physically and mentally, thanks to the practical eugenics of the good old days before the English came, when deformed or sickly babies were promptly killed, and thus prevented from propagating their failings.