FLOWERING OF THE KAROO 



the fruit contains a strong medicinal substance ; it is a 

 drastic purgative, and in overdoses is an irritant poison. 

 This was probably the Wild Vine or gourd which the young 

 prophet gathered, and which produced " death in the pot." 

 He probably mistook it for a water melon. It is still 

 plentiful near Gilgal (2 Kings xiv. 38-41).^ 



Below the surface of the earth, of course, there is not 

 nearly the same dryness or danger of losing water, so that 

 there are often a great number of bulbs, tubers, and the like 

 hidden in the soil. There they wait patiently, sometimes 

 for a whole year or even for a longer period. So soon as 

 a shower of rain falls they start to life, push out their 

 leaves, and live at very high pressure for a few days. After a 

 shower of rain, the Karoo in South Africa, for instance, 

 is an extraordinarily beautiful country. There are bulbous 

 Pelargoniums, a very curious leafless cucurbitaceous plant 

 {Acanthosicyos\ hundreds and thousands of Lilies, Irids, 

 and Amaryllids. A single scarlet flower of a Brunsvigia 

 can be seen more than a mile away ! 



These tender and delicate, exquisitely beautiful bulbs 

 flourish amongst the succulent Euphorbias and Mesembry- 

 anthemums, between the hedgehog-like thorny plants and the 

 woody little densely-branched mats of the permanent flora. 

 The rain stimulates even these last to put out green leaves 

 and flowers, but their time comes later on, when by the 

 return of the usual drought every leaf and flower and the 

 fruit of every bulb has been shrivelled up, turned into 

 powder, and scattered in dust by the wind.^ 



Then the Karoo becomes unlovely, desolate, and barren- 

 looking, with only its inconspicuous permanent plants visible. 



^ Ridley, Pharmaceutical Journal^ May 19th, 1900. 

 3 Scott Elliot, Tram. Bot. Soc. Edin., vol. 18, p. 243. 

 138 



