CHRISTMAS EVE. 



THE GARDEN is gay ; but the scarlet hibiscus, deep blue 

 hydrangeas, jacarandas, sweet-scented romneya, red-flowered 

 bottle-brush and all such things are not South African natives 

 and are well known in gardens throughout the world. But 

 there are watsonias making a fine show, mostly hybrids from 

 W. tabularis. They have good spikes of scarlet, flame and 

 salmon ; but the flower-beetles do their best to destroy them. 



Then in moist shady places the first blooms of Vallota are 

 alight. They show the most satisfying red of any flower that 

 I know : the best shades of the hybrid Amaryllis are muddy 

 compared with it. In vain do I try to persuade these plants 

 to set seed. Last year I hand-pollinated every bloom, and the 

 ovaries swelled hopefully. One day I went to visit them and 

 was entranced to find a beautiful butterfly hovering over the 

 flowers. A friend with me remarked that I might have saved 

 myself the trouble of pollinating, as the butterfly would do 

 it for me. Ten days later I went to look again. Every stem was 

 lying wilted on the ground, and in each a fat caterpillar was 

 established. Eggs had evidently been laid just where the 

 pedicels joined the main stem, and the resulting grub had 

 burrowed its way down. I now have bitter feelings toward 

 that beautiful butterfly. 



We are urgently lifting bulbs as fast as we can, for the rodent 

 moles are busier than ever. They have left me with about half 

 a dozen bulbs of the treasured Antboly^a rtngens (Babiana 

 ringens), half of my black Sparaxis are gone, and many other 

 treasures. The worst kind of mole makes no heaps or mounds 

 to show where he is working. He has small runs at the level 

 of the bulbs ; these lead to deeper and larger runs where he 

 makes his store and also his nest, which is usually lined with 

 the outside coats of Sparaxis bulbs ; and his young are fed on 

 green ixias. 



Our research workers give us instructions as to how these 

 creatures are to be dealt with. I suppose they are under the 

 impression that their methods are successful ; but I have never 

 met the grower who found them to be so. If we could get 



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