42 SOUTH AFRICAN FLOWERING PLANTS. 



just as well ? Probably the result would be that it 

 would be dead in a week or more. How, then, are we 

 to account for plants being suited to their surroundings, 

 so that we can talk of water plants, veld plants. Karroo 

 plants, desert plants, Alpine or high mountainous 

 plants, and even Arctic and Antarctic plants ? That is 

 to say, when we study all the plants found in these 

 very different kinds of surroundings, we find they can 

 live and thrive there ; but many of them will not live 

 at all if transferred from one place to another, especially 

 if the heat and cold, wet and dry surroundings, be very 

 different in amount. 



The Distribution and Evolution of plants all over 

 the world is done as follows : — 



First, we have to disperse the fruits and seeds ; as 

 when they were first brought by bii'ds, wind, or water 

 into Cape Colony, for they could not have come north- 

 wards out of the sea. The plants came from hotter, 

 tropical and moister regions into a dry country, in 

 which rain falls chiefly at certain seasons, and not at 

 intervals all the year round, as it does in England. 

 All those beautiful plants with bulbs, for which the 

 Cape is so noted, many of which are cultivated in 

 Europe and elsewhere, really 'prefer moisture ; but a 

 great number have spread into the dry regions of South 

 Africa, where they now not only al )Ound, but keep them- 

 selves alive during the long dry weather. The way 

 they do it is by making hulls. Though the flowers and 



