24-ra SEPTEMBER. 



ARCTOTIS SPECIES are now at their best. In Europe the 

 one that is best known is the annual Arctotis grandis ; I 

 remember seeing it blooming in a pot in a glass house at Kew. 

 Here at the Cape we do not bother with it much ; it is an up- 

 country species which needs watering in summer, and though 

 attractive in a delicate fashion there are many better things. 



The spring-flowering species of Arctotis are full of colour, 

 mostly running to shades of copper, bronze, orange or crimson. 

 Here I grow the two types. The one that I label Arctotis spetiosa 

 hybrid is said to be annual, but here it never thinks of dying 

 after flowering, remaining nearly dormant until the first rains 

 come in April, and then blooming all winter. But they should 

 be sown every year, as after two years the old plants become 

 untidy and scraggy. I think these are some of our very best 

 things, and because they are so adaptable they have travelled 

 through the world. In most parts of England they will come 

 safely through the winter and bloom again in early spring, but 

 where winters are severe they can be treated as half-hardy 

 annuals, started under glass early in spring, and will then bloom 

 through the summer. A bed of these in full bloom in our spring 

 sunshine is a wonderful sight the colours are so intense and 

 so varied. Here we sow in the open early in April ; they grow 

 in our mild wet winter and are ready to bloom in spring. The 

 other type I call big spreading Arctotis : it is definitely perennial 

 and will go on for years covering more and more ground and 

 making a grand show in spring. A few of these root at the 

 nodes ; but mostly I have to layer them, though sometimes it 

 is enough to peg them down into a heap of sand. There are 

 some distinct species among them, but most of mine I dare 

 not send to the botanists to be identified ; they would be scorn- 

 fully termed " garden hybrids ". 



Quite the best one seems to be a separate species. I call it 

 A. stoechadifolia variety, simply because I had the crimson 

 form of it first ; but it appears to be distinct from this species. 

 It has large very deep red flowers with shining black centres. 



