3RD JUNE. 



BACK HOME again to find the garden drenched and everything 

 sodden. The air seemed raw and cold in the mountains after 

 the soft airs and pleasant sunshine of L'Agulhas. However, a 

 glorious patch of Homoglossum Salteri in my bulb garden soon 

 cheered me. They have the appearance of being extremely 

 delicate; the thin stems, fine as wire, are about \\ feet., the 

 blossoms a true scarlet with biscuit-coloured markings on the 

 lower lip and inside the throat. Yet they stand up to the 

 bufferings of gales, and days and days of lashing rain, and then 

 with the first gleam of sun they are resplendent and remain 

 in bloom for a month. They are popularly known as " flames ", 

 and the name suits them well. To anyone but a botanist they 

 would be a species of gladiolus ; the ordinary grower does not 

 observe the cylindrical shape of the tube which makes all 

 the difference. It would be interesting to try to cross them with 

 a gladiolus, but there are none in bloom now. 



Homoglossum meriamllum is perhaps even more brilliant, the 

 scarlet of its blooms a shade brighter and the inside of the lip 

 and throat like the' yellow glow of a flame. Unfortunately 

 they do not take kindly to cultivation. I have a few ; but they 

 do not increase and set very little seed. In their native haunts 

 among the rocky slopes near the sea in the neighbourhood of 

 Cape Point they are a lovely sight. 



Another beautiful species is Homoglossum Watsonium ; this 

 grows on the higher mountains, and is somewhat more robust 

 and even more like a gladiolus. Again I have not found it easy 

 to cultivate. 



