456 SCENTED DESERT HERBAGE. 



powerfully scented with the odour of camomile, that 

 camels laden with it, which sometimes accompany the 

 Arab caravans, literally cause the atmosphere to become 

 impregnated with its aroma for immense distances to 

 leeward. Meeting with one of these caravans we once 

 sent home in a letter a little of the seed of this grass 

 to a lady in Europe, as a sample of these most power- 

 fully scented plants: it was, however, we were told, 

 too strong to be pleasant, and so could not be kept 

 in the house; and it had to be thrown out. But if 

 there are these tremendously odoriferous plants, whose 

 smell becomes obnoxious, because of its exceeding 

 strength there are also many other species whose 

 delicious fragrance surpasses in delicacy and freshness 

 all the highest triumphs of the perfumer's art. The 

 scented acacia blooms we have already noticed: these, 

 of course, are only produced during the season of 

 growth; but among the herbage, the leaves of nearly 

 all the dwarf plants are at all times strongly aromatic, 

 but especially so at night, or after a rain storm. 

 Mr. Gordon Cumming, the African hunter, among 

 others, frequently speaks of this, and mentions that 

 " the air of the South African wilds was loaded with 

 balmy perfume emitted by the grateful herbs and plants." 

 Proceeding to the northward of the Orange river, he 

 notices that the small Karroo bushes were replaced by 

 others of a variety different to those seen towards the South. 



" Most of these " (he says) " yielded a strong aromatic perfume, 

 more particularly when the ground was refreshed by rain; 

 on which occasions the African wilderness diffuses a perfume 

 so exquisite and balmy that no person who has not ex- 

 perienced its delights can form an idea of it." * 



* Five Years of a Hunter's Life in the Far Interior of South Africa, 

 by R. Gordon Cumming, 1850, Vol. L, p. 135. 



