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These remarkable plants, are wonderfully adapted to thrive in 

 the uncertain climate of South Africa. It will nevertheless be 

 found that their habits and peculiarities render them at all times 

 somewhat uncommon and rare. A stranger unaccustomed to seek 

 out their hidden abodes might traverse the whole country 

 -without seeing a single specimen, and yet they are so well dis- 

 persed that no locality is without especial varieties. They lie 

 hidden in remote nooks and corners, in which they may so easily 

 be overlooked, even when you know them well, that you find 

 them where you are not expecting ; yon come upon thena as it 

 were unawares, beneath some shad\ bush or perchance clinging 

 to the face of a rugged precipice, or behind some projecting rock. 

 Some species prefer shade, while others delight in the full blaze 

 of an African sun. They are exceedingly tenacious of life, sur- 

 viving long seasons of protracted drought, and even when their 

 roots have entirely failed, some of the succulent branches that 

 have fallen to the earth strike root afresh, and rise as it were 

 from the ashes of the original plant. 



Stapelias are true evolutionists, they do not grow where they 

 would choose to grow, nor where they would thrive the best, but 

 Avhere they are enabled to hold their own against an all-powerful 

 and overwhelming host of grasses, and other irrepressible plants, 

 in some secluded spot, frequently where a shelving rock will 

 lend a helping hand against invasion. Nevertheless I am sorry 

 to state that these interesting plants are rapidly disappearing from 

 all parts of South Africa. Civilization and colonization are both 

 dead against them. They are eaten up by " all kinds and con- 

 ditions " of cattle. For instance, if an ostrich finds a Stapelia 

 plant he seldom leaves without taking nearly the whole of it with 

 him. Cattle, sheep, and goats, in like manner feed upon them 

 greedily. The native tribes during years of severe drought and 

 famine use these plants as food, and native children delight in 

 their sweet young succulent branches. The florist and the gardener 

 go hand in hand with the rest in this work of destruction, for you 

 will hear them exclaiming " Oh ! here is one of those curious 

 Stapelias," and it will speedily be pulled up and planted in some 

 flower-bed, where for want of care it will be overgrown by other 

 plants and lost. 



The great bulk of Stapelia-species blossom in the autumn 

 season ; occasionally some of the small kinds flower in spring 

 after the rains have fallen, and continue in blossom during the 

 whole of the summer, when rarely flowers and seed pods may be 

 found upon the same plant, but not upon the same branches. 



As a rule Stapelias do not seed freely ; a great proportion of the 

 flowers remain unfertilized. When fertilization has taken place 

 the large blossom speedily falls, while the stem with the ovary 

 grows thick and large, and turns down where it becomes hidden 

 among the succulent branches, remaining in this position during 

 the whole of the ensuing winter, being thus eecure from all barm, 

 not rising again until after the rains have fallen in spring, at which 

 time it will be observed mounting up in a perpendicular manner 

 from its lowly bed, and standing out above the plant, when the 

 pods will be rapidly developed like great horns. They then 

 remain stationary until they become ripe, when the pods open 



