48 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



eight inches from the ground, and though so valuable 

 to farmers, it is but unpretending in appearance, with 

 tiny, narrow leaves, and a little, round, bright yellow 

 flower, exactly resembling the centre of an English 

 daisy after its oracle has been consulted, and its last 

 petal pulled by some enquiring Marguerite. 



The fei-bosch is another of our commonest and most 

 useful plants ; its pinkish-lilac flower is very like that 

 of the portulacca, and its little flat succulent leaves 

 look like miniature prickly pear leaves without the 

 prickles ; hence its name, from TurJc-fei, Turkish fig. 

 When flowering in large masses, and seen at a little 

 distance, the fei-bosch might almost be taken for 

 heather. 



The brack-bosch, which completes our trio of very 

 best kinds of ostrich-bush, is a taller and more grace- 

 ful plant than either of the preceding, with blue-green 

 leaves, and blossom consisting of a spike of little 

 greenish tufts; but there are an endless variety of 

 other plants, among v/hich there is hardly one that is 

 not good nourishing food for the birds. 



All are alike succulent and full of salt, giving out a 

 crisp, crackling sound as you walk over them ; all have 

 the same strange way of growing, each plant a little 

 isolated patch by itself, just as the tufts of wool grow 

 on the Hottentots' heads ; and the flowers of nearly 

 all are of the portulacca type, some large, some small, 

 some growing singly, others in clusters; they are of 

 different colours white, yellow, orange, red, pink, 

 lilac, etc. They are very delicate and fragile flowers ; 



