18 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. 



of October the peach-blossom had altogether disappeared 

 and was succeeded by the prodigious bloom of roses, 

 which often constitute whole hedges to fields and gar- 

 dens. There are a few white blooms, but the majority 

 are of a pale pink colour, mostly single, some semi- 

 double, and there are also small double button-hole 

 blooms which grow in clusters ; these roses flower con- 

 tinuously during the whole Transvaalian summer. An 

 occasional passion-flower (Passiflora) is also found with 

 the roses and blooms during the same time. Oleanders 

 (Neriuin oleander] thrive remarkably well in Pretoria. 

 In one private garden are two specimens, each some 

 fifteen to twenty feet high and of the circumference of 

 a large fruit-tree ; these at the early part of October 

 became a mass of red bloom and were a glorious con- 

 trast to the puny examples we grow in our greenhouses 

 in England. The oleander cut and trimmed forms a 

 considerable portion of the hedge which encloses the 

 cemetery. I did not meet with our old friend the 

 Oleander Hawk-Moth (Cheer ocampa nerii), though its 

 non-appearance in my path was probably purely acci- 

 dental, for I found two other hawk-moths common to 

 our English fauna, which in Pretoria were not scarce 

 and quite unmodified from their usual form : I allude to 

 Acherontia atropos and Protoparce convolvuli. In gar- 

 dens the Hibiscus is hardy and blooms freely, but is not 

 so much cultivated as such a handsome plant deserves, 

 whilst the useful and robust " Indian shot-plant "(Canna 

 indicd) everywhere abounds with its striking foliage and 

 its deep red bloom. Flower-gardens, however, exhibit 

 most of the features of those at home the geranium, 

 verbena, marigold, stock, dahlia, sunflower, phlox drum- 

 mondi, and mignonette being very common. Zinnias 

 here attain to particular excellence and growth, and the 

 scattered seed has produced a small wild or degraded 

 form which is found on the hard veld. It will thus be 

 seen that the greater part of the plants and flowers of 

 Pretoria are, like its inhabitants, migrants and colonists. 

 The winter season, during which I arrived with its ever- 

 green and deciduous trees, its orange-trees bearing ripe 

 fruit, and its leafless willows, the August noon and the 



