28 



THE EASTERN PROVINCE 



(which throw up tall spikes of flowers hidden under green bracts) and 

 " golden rods " of scarlet and yellow. 



The scenery on the Nandi Plateau between 7,000 and 10,000 feet in 

 altitude reminds the homesick official and traveller over and over again 

 of England, of Wales, of t^cotland. Here are the swelling green downs 

 crested with beautiful woodland, reminding one of Sussex or Surrey. 

 Here is a roaring Scotch burn in full spate, the colour of foaming beer, 

 tearing down over grey boulders through a forest of gaunt junipers, which 

 at a little distance might well be pines or firs growing on Scotch 



22. OS THE NANDI PLATEAU, LOOKING JiiWAIIh 



mountains. Here you may see the Brecknock Beacons, scenery more 

 mountainous than the Sussex downs, yet with the rich woods of 

 Surrey, and the rocks of Wales. The natural meadows are full of 

 blue forget-me-nots or of pink or white clover. In the ferny hollows 

 on the edges of the woodland are innumerable violets (scentless, alas !), 

 buttercups, daisies, and many other English-looking flowers and ferns 

 growing amid the short grass. There is also a very pretty little dwarf 

 iris, which, although not English, is still very European. In marshy 

 spots on the higher uplands grows the "golden rod" of South Africa— the 

 "red-hot poker" of old-fashioned gardens. Here there mav be seen in 



