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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 foi*m 

 and habit. Some have small flowers which attract the attention 

 of no one except the Botanist; others at the elevation of a 

 few inches, bear a blossom that exceeds in size the crown of a 

 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 

 swarms of bees, beetles, and other insects, whose variegated 

 colours and active movements heighten the interest of the 

 scene ; nor is this interest at all diminished when the Certhia 



