138 THE GEOGRAPHY OF PLANTS. 



wilds ot South Africa, with a splendour un- 

 known in our colder clime. 



Among the most striking features of the 

 Cape are the myrtle hedges, which grow to a 

 great height around every inclosure ; " their 

 blooming beauty waving over the head of the 

 passenger ; they unite their fragrance with the 

 odoriferous exhalations from the orange and 

 lemon trees, so abundant in that clime." Some- 

 times these luxuriant hedges extend for one or 

 two miles, separating gardens, orchards, and 

 other cultivated grounds. Some of our country- 

 men, who have visited the Cape of Good Hope, 

 have recorded, that on their first arrival there 

 they have trodden with caution, lest they should 

 destroy the bright and beautiful heaths, gera- 

 niums, ixias, etc., which lay in their path. 

 When wandering into the country they have 

 come home laden with the wild flowers of the 

 land, and have wondered how the colonists 

 could wholly neglect the peerless beauties 

 around them, while they cultivated with the 

 most sedulous attention the paler flowers of 

 more northern regions, the tulips, primroses, 

 hyacinths, etc., of Europe. Not one of the 

 lovely heaths is admitted into the garden of a 

 colonist ; and our countrymen in like manner 

 soon came to regard them as common bushes, 

 and cherish the English plants, which now had 

 attained to the value of exotics. 



But rich as is the vegetation of South 

 Africa, and beautiful as its plants are, there are 

 vast tracts which are entirely desert, where 



