South African Horticulture. 335 



group known as Cape plants. Considering the limited range and the 

 difficulty of transportation of some of these kinds, especially Heaths, 

 it is a matter of surprise that they ever reached Europe alive, but 

 once there the highest skill in horticultural propagation and culture 

 was brought to bear on them, with the result that finer displays of 

 Cape plants were common then in Europe than have ever yet been 

 brought together in one place in South Africa, these exhibits being 

 seldom surpassed even now. Hybridization, and the selection of 

 sports in broken species, also came into play, with the result that 

 many grand varieties which have never been seen in Africa have 

 been secured from Cape parents. 



Fashions change, and Cape plants are no longer thought of as 

 one group ; some of them have gone out altogether, but others still 

 hold their own, especially Bulbs, Pelargoniums, and some Ericas, 

 and form leading features in the horticultural trade of Europe and 

 North America at the present time, propagated in these countries, 

 and seldom grown here for export. 



Later History : Botanic Gardens. 



It is part of Britain's system of colonization that a public 

 garden, usually under the name of a " Botanic Garden," acts as a 

 centre of importation, acclimitization and distribution of plants, 

 wherever a considerable community has settled, which does not possess 

 an energetic nurseryman in its midst. Such has happened at many 

 centres in Cape Colony, and at two in Natal, while public parks 

 have answered somewhat the same purpose in the Transvaal and 

 Orange River Colony. Aided by Government grants, these estab- 

 lishments have done very useful work, and in most cases contain 

 specimens of numerous kinds — especially of trees and shrubs, not 

 elsewhere represented in their respective neighbourhoods — and thus 

 form object lessons of the first importance. In some cases these 

 have withdrawn from public competition in nursery work after a satis- 

 factory local supply was established by private effort, and then simply 

 exist on the Government grant or local contributions ; in other cases 

 they use the Government grant in raising ordinary nursery stock 

 for sale as a means of existence, and thus by State aid prevent 

 the development of a local industry of this nature ; while in a 

 small number of cases they have themselves developed into important 

 nurseries, managed nominally by Committees, but actually by the 

 Curators, and in these cases the Government grant is rightly used 

 in the maintenance and development of the botanic garden proper, 

 while the nursery is self-supporting or even profitable, any profit 

 derived going towards increased effort, or adding to the charm of 

 the garden itself. Usually these Botanic Gardens and Public Parks 

 have done much to foster a love of horticulture and render its practice 

 possible ; unfortunately, inadequate provision of funds and over- 

 ambitious committees have in not a few cases saddled these establish- 

 ments with White Elephants which could not exist on the Government 



