They look very good coming over the edge of a stone wall, the 

 grey foliage just showing through the mass of dark red blooms. 



Arctotis aspera is a good thing too, having attractive foliage 

 cut, crisped and curled, in very dark green against which the 

 pale yellow flowers are very pleasing. There are some good 

 hybrids from this species, all of which have a very long blooming 

 season and are excellent for cutting. Of course they shut up 

 at night, and so are not suitable for dinner-table decoration. 

 They are all in bloom now, some having flowers of crimson 

 with a white ring round the centre, some creamy-white with a 

 black ring, some orange touched with pale cream at the tips 

 at the rays, others a deep bright copper, and others again a 

 light yellow showing red on the reverse of the ray flowers. 

 They grow and bloom in great profusion, and are certainly 

 worth acquiring for a fairly large garden and indispensable for 

 slopes and terraces in the wild garden. In our hot dry summers, 

 when the flowers are over, the cool grey foliage is in itself 

 refreshing to the eye, and a perpetual reminder of the ever- 

 recurring glories of spring. 



On sunny days the Mesembrianthemttm family make a brilliant 

 colour display from about 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The name 

 Mesembriantbemum is now restricted to comparatively few 

 species in this vast group, and the showy ones that everyone 

 knows best are now mostly included in the genus Lampranthus . 

 The first of these to bloom here is Lampranthus aurem, its golden 

 gleam flashing out on the first warm sunny day, and how 

 welcome it is ! There are bush species of Mesembrianthemum in 

 every conceivable colour except blue, and the colours are 

 always clear, brilliant and intense. They should be planted in 

 bold masses that is, for people who can stand concentrated 

 colour. I have had people complain that they could not stand 

 the wave of colour in my kloof garden when all the Mesem- 

 brianthemum plants were in bloom ; others say that it makes 

 them so extremely tired that they have to get away from it. 

 But now I sow patches of the lovely blue Heliopbila between 

 the colour splashes, and that immediately gives relief. 



The creeping varieties of MeJembriantmmum have often 

 more delicate colours. For instance, there are the lovely shell- 



