have named specimens for me. Without their help my work 

 would have been impossible. I can never be grateful enough 

 to them. 



Also I want to thank Air. Mathews, who so generously passed 

 on to me much of the knowledge he had gained as Curator of 

 the National Botanic Gardens, Kirstenbosch, whose advice and 

 encouragement has saved me many a failure, and who may still 

 be relied on to admire hybrid Dimorphothecas for hours on end 

 without a sign of exhaustion. 



Thanks are due, too, to all those people up and down the 

 country who out of the kindness of their hearts have sent me 

 seeds, bulbs and plants. Perhaps they will find them again in 

 this book. To Miss Edith Stephens, the genial Secretary of 

 the Cape Natural History Society, whose left hand is certainly 

 in complete ignorance of the good her right is doing, I tender 

 my sincere thanks. And, lastly, to the most good-tempered 

 of photographers, Mr. R. Nicholson, who would willingly 

 expend his precious rationed petrol to come ten miles to make 

 a picture of some elegant beauty, only to find a puffy wind 

 blowing, and the fair one too coy to be caught by the camera. 



There are many others whom I should like to thank ; but 

 they are kind-hearted and generous folk and will know that 

 kindnesses received over so many years would, if listed, fill 

 a volume. 



And so the little book goes on its way. I hope it may give 

 pleasure to plant-lovers in many countries. It has already many 

 old friends waiting to receive it, and I hope that it will make 

 many new ones for itself. 



K. C. STANFORD. 

 Bloem Erf, 



Stellenbosch. 



