576 FOREST CULTURE AND 
few have found their way into our own gardens, 
although these plants would need here singularly lit- 
tle care. Still less horticultural attention is essential 
for the wonderful variety of succulents with which 
South Africateems. You may have seen, Spring after 
Spring, or Summer after Summer, the gayness of at 
least a few species of Mesembryanthemum, unfolding 
under the sun of our clear sky a dazzling brilliancy 
of starry flowers, on which the eye is almost unable 
to rest. Of these Mesembryanthema nearly 300 spe- 
cies exist in South Africa, mere varieties uncounted. 
But the array of succulents does not end with them. 
There are also a quarter of a hundred of Cotyledons, 
no less than 100 Crassulas, more than 100 Stapelias, 
about 160 kinds of Aloe, several Kleinias, cactus-like 
Euphorbias, and a good many others, all highly desir- 
able for scientific garden collections, some quite para- 
doxical. Thus, South Africa alone gives us nearly a 
thousand succulents, many, I fear, under the progress 
of settlement doomed to absolute annihilation. When 
speaking of succulents, hardy here, I do not compre- 
hend among them the generality of Cacti, of which 
it is assumed that about a thousand kinds occur, all, 
with one exception, American, mostly, however, in- 
tra- tropical; yet also many of these do not demand 
protection under our sky. 
T cannot extend these details much, but our means 
of communicating with the Cape of Good Hope are 
seemingly on the increase, and so our facilities of ac- 
quiring ; more particularly since Her Majesty’s repre- 
sentative will now also prove a dispenser of generos- 
ity from thence. I may, just in passing, remind you 
of the existence of sixty Phylicas, nearly as many 
ee 
teria 
o_o 
