PLANTS OF THE KARROO. 53 



garments and in my own, took up a large proportion of 

 time ; and often did I congratulate myself on the fact 

 that my riding-habit at least chosen contrary to the 

 advice of friends at home, who all counselled coolness 

 and lightness above everything was of such stout, 

 strong cloth as to defy most of the thorns. Any less 

 substantial material would have been reduced to rib- 

 bons in some of our rides. 



On foot, you are perpetually assailed by the great 

 strong hooks of the wild asparagus, a troublesome 

 enemy, whose long straggling branches trailing over the 

 ground are most destructive to the skirts of dresses ; 

 while boots have deadly foes, not only in the shape of 

 rough ground and hard, sharp-pointed stones, but also 

 in that of numerous prickly and scratchy kinds of 

 small bush. At the end of one walk in the veldt, the 

 surface of a kid boot is all rubbed and torn into little 

 ragged points, and is never again fit to be seen. For- 

 tunately, in the Karroo, no one is over-particular about 

 such small details. 



Among our troublesome plants, one of the worst and 

 most plentiful is the prickly pear; and farmers have 

 indeed no reason to bless the old Dutchwoman who, by 

 simply bringing one leaf of it from Cape Town to 

 Graaff-Reinet, was the first introducer of what has be- 

 come so great a nuisance. It spreads with astonishing 

 rapidity, and is so tenacious of life that a leaf, or even a 

 small portion of a leaf, if thrown on the ground, strikes 

 out roots almost immediately, and becomes the parent 

 of a fast-growing plant ; and it is not without great 



