FLOWERS OF THE DESERT 21 



composed of hardy organisms, which an ap- 

 prenticeship from days unthinkably ancient 

 had habituated to their most difficult condi- 

 tions of existence. If, somewhere near the 

 margin of the great central plain, we happened 

 to cross the track of a vagrant thunder-storm, 

 we would see myriads of delicately-petalled 

 blossoms miraculously surviving, like the 

 Faithful Rulers of Babylon in the Fiery 

 Furnace. On the flank of some flaming sand- 

 dune we would find the tulip-like blooms of 

 the Gethyllis flourishing in leafless splendour. 

 Their corollas were of crystalline white 

 splashed with vivid crimson; deep in each 

 goblet lay the clustered anthers, — a convoluted 

 mass of glowing gold. Is this flower a grail, 

 bearing beauty too ineffable to die, through an 

 arid aeon from one cycle of fertility to another? 

 Sometimes our course led over tracts of sand 

 — sand so light and powdery that the foot sank 

 into it ankle-deep at every step. Occasionally 

 we crossed high, abrupt ridges of black or 

 chocolate-hued rock, separated from each 

 other by gorges so deep that except at noon- 

 tide, no sunbeam penetrated them. But 

 usually our course lay across plains, infinite 

 in extent. In the Summer season such were 

 covered with heavy-headed shocks of " toa " 



