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so varied, or so profusely scattered, as over the arid sands of 
South-Africa. Amidst all the beauties of that kingdom, the 
Cape Heaths stand confessedly unrivalled. Nature has not 
restricted these elegant shrubs to one particular soil or situa- 
tion. You meet with them in the marshes, and on the banks of 
rivers; in the richest soil, and on the bare mural cliffs ; on the 
acclivities of the hills, and the tops of the highest mountains. 
The form of their flowers is as varied as their colours. Some 
are shaped like a cup, some are globular, some exhibit the 
figure of a cone, others that of a cylinder contracted at the 
mouth, or swelled out like a trumpet; some are smooth and 
glossy; others covered with down, or with mucilage. The 
predominant colour is red; but you meet with them white, 
green, and purple; of every colour, in short, but blue; a fact 
which deserves notice, when we consider the almost unlimited 
extent of the genus; there being already upwards of three 
hundred species recorded. 
“Next to the Heaths in variety and beauty, stand the 
Proteas. In the stem, the leaves, the flower, and the fruit of 
these plants, there appears such diversity, as if Nature had 
created them with a view to setting botanical arrangement 
at defiance; and the name imposed on the genus would seem - 
to indicate that she has been in some degree successful. The 
Protea argentea grows to the height of a middling-sized tree; 
while the Protea repens? at the other extreme, creeps along 
the sand, and bears at the point of its slender stem, a flower, 
which, from its size and colour, might be mistaken for an 
orange: The intermediate space is occupied by upwards of 
sixty species, which display an astonishing diversity in form 
and habit. Some have small flowers which attract the attention 
of no one except the Botanist; others at the elevation ofa 
few inches, bear a blossom that exceeds in size the crown of 3 
hat, and excites the admiration of the most careless observer 
In the flowers of some species, particularly the Protea melli- 
fera, a vast quantity of honey is secreted, which attracts 
— of. bees, beetles, and other insects, whose varieg? 
colours and active movements heighten the interest of the 
scene; nor is this interest at all diminished when the Certhia 
