THE SUB-TROPICAL ZONE. 137 



the beautiful and favourite " geraniums " of our 

 gardens, green-houses, and cottage windows. 

 Ninety-four beautiful species of Oxalis, or 

 wood-sorrel ;Mxias innumerable, a lovely tribe 

 of bulbous-rooted plants ; one hundred and 

 fifty-three species of the house-leek and stone- 

 crop tribe, all fleshy, attached to the soil by a 

 strong wiry root, and nourished more or less 

 from the atmosphere, are among the rich vege- 

 tation of the Cape. Many of the succulent 

 plants are found in the driest situations, where 

 not a blade of grass nor a particle of moss can 

 grow on naked rocks, old walls, sandy hot 

 plains, alternately exposed to the heaviest dews 

 of night, and the fiercest rays of a noonday's 

 sun. Soil is to them something to keep them 

 stationary, rather than a source of nutriment. 

 So tenacious are they of life, that even when 

 gathered, and between the drying paper of the 

 botanical collector, under a heavy pressure, 

 and having been exposed to heat, if possible to 

 kill them, they have been known not only to 

 live, but even to push out long shoots, and if 

 in flower, for the process of fructification to 

 proceed as if growing in the soil. Three hun- 

 dred and twenty-six species of the succulent 

 tribe of mesembryanthernums, called fig mari- 

 golds and ice plants, are found here, many of 

 which have star-like flowers of dazzling beauty, 

 and of every tint of white, yellow, purple, rose- 

 colour, brown, flesh-coloured, red, crimson and 

 scarlet. Many another tribe, equally showy 

 and brilliant, though less known, adorns the 



