THE SUB-TROPICAL ZONE. 171 



and shining leaves, and are overgrown by climbing plants 

 with brilliant flowers. The " Myrtles and Fuchsias are 

 covered with lovely blossoms throughout the year/' and 

 Calceolarias too are native here. On the level plain both 

 to the east and west of the Andes there are numbers of 

 bushes with woody stems and Composite flowers, and others 

 with blossoms like the Mint tribe (Labiates). During the 

 rainy season these wide plains are adorned " with thousands 

 of gay liliaceous plants. But when the moisture has dis- 

 appeared, when the sun has beat for months during sum- 

 mer on the plain, all its splendour is gone, not a trace of 

 these beautiful Lilies is to be seen, and the bushes even 

 seem dead; their leaves lie in heaps round the stem, and 

 in the leaf-buds only we perceive the dormant life of these 

 plants/' One feature which the northern and southern 

 portions of this zone possess in common, is formed by the 

 majestic tree-like Grasses ; but with the exception of these, 

 we have seen few sights to remind us of the Old World, 

 and we again set forward for the southernmost part of 

 Africa, wondering whether we shall see a more familiar 

 kind of vegetation there. 



But in Southern Africa we are surrounded with fresh, and 

 still more foreign sights ; for with the exception of the 



