Deserts 



Things which look like fragments of white quartz or 

 brownish-grey objects, flushed with dull green, which 

 are exactly like thousands of stones around them, 

 suddenly produce flowers. The first are found to be 

 Anacampseros papyracea, and the second Mesembry- 

 anthemum Bolusii.^ 



Amongst the yellow and brown shales of Bruintje's 

 Hoogte, or other similarly named places, one finds 

 Mesembryanthema and Stapelias. 



A casual observer or a hungry antelope would never 

 have detected the difference between these objects, 

 which are edible, in an emergency, and their surround- 

 ing stones. 



After rain everything is fresh, vigorous, green, and 

 growing. Dry, woody little mats, thorntufts a few 

 inches high, flower and put out fresh leaves, and one 

 finds Polygalas, Indigoferas, Aptosimums, and all sorts 

 of odd South African genera in bewildering variety. 

 The author noticed a patch of bright scarlet a mile 

 and a half away, and found it to be a single plant of 

 Brunsvigia. 



In a week or two all is over. Everything green has 

 withered up, and its brownish, yellow or grey dust fades 

 into the monotonous aridity of the Karoo, which re- 

 mains a desert for months together. 



It is the succulents which are, perhaps, the most im- 

 pressive of all desert plants. Their odd shapes, spheres, 

 fleshy pillars, candelabras, swollen, gouty-looking stems 

 or bulbous dropsical leaves are very remarkable. Many 

 have long grey hairs, or are covered over by a system 

 of stout curved spines, which are generally sharp, 

 smooth, and shining. They have in most cases a peculiar 

 pale bluish or light green colour, which is due to a de- 

 posit of wax on the outer surface. 



But their most remarkable peculiarity consists in some 



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