280 The Gardens of the Sun. [ch. xiv. 



The female plants were not nearly so plentiful as were 

 the males, and I am inclined to think that these tiny 

 flies aid fertilisation, for some of the female plants were a 

 long way distant from any males, and yet they appeared 

 to have heen fertilised. N. villosa is often found in these 

 open patches with the larger kind just alluded to, but 

 more frequently it affects the margins of the open patches, 

 and luxuriates among the low bushes, by which its weaker 

 and more elongated stems are supported. N. Lowii and 

 the beautiful N. Edwardsiana appear never to reach so 

 high an altitude as those just named. I cannot describe 

 the elated emotions I felt in traversing this mountain side, 

 and gazing on forms of vegetable life the most remark- 

 able of any to be found in the whole world ! Hunger, 

 bruises, and the repeated drenchings we had received 

 during our journey hither, these and all other of our 

 troubles seemed to vanish as I gazed around me on the 

 wonders of creation and inhaled the cool invigorating 

 mountain air. We returned to our cave-dwelling about 

 four o'clock. As I write up my diary, a tiny bird is 

 flitting about quite close to me, and does not appear in 

 the least afraid. It is but little larger than a wren, its 

 body being of a dark brown colour ; the head and shoulders 

 are mottled with yellowish brown. From its lively and 

 erratic flight, I suspect it is of the flycatcher group. It 

 flits backwards and forwards from bough to bough, and 

 frequently leaves a branch as though flying right off, and 

 quite surprises you by suddenly and adroitly twisting 

 itself round and dropping back into the place from which 

 it started. Another occasional visitor is a blackbird, 

 having a golden bill and a reddish-brown breast. It 

 strongly resembles our own blackbird indeed, but is 

 perhaps a trifle fuller in the body. Again, we heard the 

 little songster alluded to in the account of my first visit 



