PORT ELIZABETH AND WALMER. 21 



or six plants close together, and then perhaps no more 

 of them to be seen during the whole of a long walk. 



Another of our favourites was the aantblom, a kind 

 of ixia, whose lovely flowers range through all possible 

 shades of rose-colour and orange, from the deepest to 

 the palest tints of pink and yellow, down to the purest 

 white. A large bouquet of nothing but these delicate, 

 fragile-looking blossoms, each one of a different shade, 

 brought to us by some little neighbours soon after our 

 arrival, was a delightful surprise. So also was the first 

 finding of the sweet Cape jessamine growing wild ; but 

 this is one of the rarer plants. 



Then there is the scarlet heath ; its cluster of large, 

 velvet-like flowers so vivid in colouring as to look like 

 a flame of fire when the sun comes glancing through it. 

 It is the most beautiful of all the Cape heaths, numer- 

 ous and lovely as they are though a delicately-shaded 

 pink and white one comes very near it in beauty. 

 The blue lobelias grow profusely all over the common ; 

 they are much larger and finer than those in English 

 gardens, and are of the deepest ultra-marine, only a 

 few here and there being a very pretty pale blue. 

 Occasionally but this is very rare you find a pure 

 white lobelia. Another flower of our home gardens, 

 the gazania, is very plentiful, the ground being every- 

 where studded with its large, bright orange- coloured 

 stars. 



Pink and white immortelles, gladioli, ixias, and irises 

 of all kinds abound ; some of the latter are tiny 

 specimens, yet they are pencilled with all the same 



