PAMPAS GRASS. 285 



in Northern Europe, are never seen, except at the 

 commencement of the rainy season, when the tender 

 shoots of the young grass first begin to sprout ; and then 

 it is only for a short time that this resemblance to the 

 green pastures of the temperate zone is kept up: for 

 although varieties of almost all our principal grasses 

 have been identified as existing in almost every region, 

 their habit of growth under a tropical sun is altogether 

 changed ; and instead of short, close, succulent herbage, 

 gigantic growths of coarse, rank, broad-leafed grasses 

 spring up. The now well-known Pampas-grass 

 (Gynerium Argenteum\ a recent importation from South 

 America, which adorns many of our garden lawns, 

 furnishes a fair example of this class of grasses (that 

 is to say, it is a gigantic grass, which can be seen, 

 and which will do fairly well, in our British climate 

 but it is in no sense a grass of the tropical zone). 



We must now endeavour to give a short sketch of 

 the characteristic features, special to the open or park- 

 like region of the regular bush country, which in some 

 respects are altogether distinct from those of any other 

 region. 



On account of the prevalence of the long dry seasons 

 and powerful solar heats, the trees of what we have 

 called " The Great Bush Country " are, as might be 

 expected, except in well-watered situations, mostly 

 dwarfed, stunted, and thorny indeed on the African 

 highlands, with the exception of an occasional gigantic 

 Baobab tree (Adansonia Digitatd] or a clump of 

 Tamarinds or Sycamores (Ficus Sycomorus] * very few 



* The Oriental Sycamore (spoken of in the Bible for instance) is 

 quite a different tree to the sycamore (Acer Pseudo-Platanus) known 

 in England, the latter being a variety of the maple whereas the 



