22 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM, 



delicate lines as the larger sorts, though on so small a 

 scale that you almost need a magnifying glass to enable 

 you to see all their beauties. Then there are the Natal 

 lilies, o-rowinor in larcre round clusters, each in itself 

 sufficient to fill a flower- vase ; you have but to break 

 a thick, succulent stem, and a perfect, ready-made 

 bouquet of pink, sweet-scented flowers is in your hand. 



Some of the plants about Walmer are more curious 

 than beautiful ; one especially — which, not knowing its 

 real name,* we called " the upholstery flower " — is like 

 an enormous tassel of red or pink fringe, gaudily 

 ornamented outside with a stiff" pattern in green and 

 brown. It is about seven or eight inches long, solid 

 and heavy in proportion ; and looks as if in the fitness 

 of thinofs it oucrht to be at the end of a thick red and 

 green cord looping up the gorgeous curtains of an 

 American hotel. The flower is shaped like a gigantic 

 thistle, but the plant on which it grows is a shrub, with 

 a hard, woody stem, and laurel-like leaves. These are 

 only a few specimens of the common's wealth of 

 flowers ; each time we went out we brought home a 

 diff'erent collection, and our little rooms were bright 

 with that intensity of colouring which makes the great 

 difference between these children of the sun and the 

 flora of colder climates. 



A search for flowers on the common, or, indeed, a 



walk anywhere about Walmer, is attended by one very 



unpleasant penalty — you invariably come home covered 



with ticks. There are several varieties of these tor- 



* We have since found that this plant is a Protect, 



