20 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



if there is no time for a ramble in search of flowers on 

 the surrounding common, you need only run out and 

 pick a few arums from the nearest hedge or small 

 stream ; and a few of them go a long way. 



But the treasures of the common are endless ; and 

 first and loveliest among them all is the little " wax- 

 creeper," * than which, tiny as it is, I do not think a 

 more perfect flower could be imagined. It is as modest 

 as a little violet ; and you have to seek it out in its 

 hiding-places under the thick foliage of the bushes, 

 round the stems of which it twines so tightly that it 

 is a work of some time to disentangle it. You also 

 get many scratches during the process, for it loves to 

 choose as its protectors the most prickly plants ; but 

 when at last you hold the delicate wreath in your 

 hands, and look into its minute beauties — the graceful 

 curves of the slender stalk and tendrils, no two of 

 which ever grow alike ; the long, narrow, dark-green 

 leaves ; and the clusters of brilliant, carmine-tinted 

 flowers, each like a tiny, exquisitely-shaped vase cut 

 out in glistening wax — you are amply rewarded. It is 

 indeed one of the masterpieces of nature, and the first 

 sight of it was a pleasure I can never forget. 



This little flower does not bear transplanting. We 

 often tried to domesticate it in our garden, but the 

 plants invariably died. It was quite the rarest of all 

 our flowers. We have never seen it anywhere but about 

 Walmer, and there it grows only in small patches ; five 



* Microloma lineare. 



