NATAL AND ITS FLORA. pa. 
are mostly what are called thornbush, a kind of stunted, 
flat-topped mimosa, with strong thorns or spikes. In the 
high-lands, chiefly in the kloofs (clefts of the rocks) the 
best-known trees are the yellowwood, sneezewood, stink- 
wood, and essenwood. Several of these yield good timber, 
but the trees are not found in sufficient numbers to be of 
practical utility. Most of the timber used in Natal is 
imported from Australia and Norway. 
With regard to herbaceous plants, their name is legion, 
and to have any adequate idea of the herbaceous flora, one 
must visit the colony and see the flowers as they grow and 
bloom on the veldt, and in the woods and on the hills. In 
the early days of spring, after the first rains fall, the wild 
flowers are seen in great perfection and profusion. Bulbous 
plants are very numerous, and their flowers are specially 
delicate and beautiful. Lilies, orchids, amaryllids (irises), 
ixias (flowering grasses), gladioli, vying with each other in 
grace and beauty of form and brilliance of colour. The 
arum lily, commonly called in England the “ Lily of the 
Nile,” and in South Africa the “Pig lily,” grows wild in 
very great abundance, but I am not sure that the species 
is indigenous to the country. In the bush there are 
climbing and trailing plants innumerable—epiphytic and 
terrestrial orchids, begonias and ferns, lycopodia and mosses, 
in wild profusion. It may give some idea of the beauty of 
the wild flowers if I quote from a letter which I received 
in January from my sister, who was, at the time she wrote, 
living on a farm, the highest part of which is about 5000 
feet above sea-level. She says:—“I wish you could see 
some of the lovely wild flowers we are discovering every 
day, and that are quite new to us. Bunches of heather 
grow beside the beautiful little spruits, beds of sweetest 
purple clover, and quite overhanging the stream are lovely 
lilies—star-shaped and of a bright rose-colour. Yesterday 
we climbed one of the highest hills here, and found pretty, 
small, white heath, and quantities of lobelia, and little 
flowers like eye-bright and milkwort.. On the way up the 
green hillocks were covered with magenta-pink gladioli, and 
on the top, brilliant flame-coloured. flowers and blue 
agapanthus lilies were growing luxuriantly. We traversed 
