Deserts 
out check over half a continent or so, and with only an 
annual inch or two of rain to depend upon, or perhaps 
with water buried 20 to 30 feet below the soil. 
These “ brave, poor things” are not, as a rule, beauti- 
ful. Some are exceedingly small, woody shrublets, 
densely branched, with every twig or leaf ending in a 
sharp thorn or spine. Others are covered with close 
cotton-wool or grey hairs. Cactus and the succulent 
euphorbias, and other fleshy plants are also characteristic 
of desert conditions. 
The leafless, woody branches of the broom-like Retama, 
the hard wiry tussocks of Halfagrass, spinifexes, and 
especially thorny acacias belong to the desert-fringe, 
but their roots, probably in all cases, manage to reach 
moist soil or water, which lies 20 feet or more below the 
surface. 
There is also an interesting group which grow in the 
desert, but only when it is, for a few days, not a desert. 
After a shower of rain a multitude of tiny plants, 
with brilliant flowers, suddenly cover the surface. Three 
or four days of splendid sunshine sees these ephemerals 
spring up, blossom, set their seed, and wither away into 
*mpalpable dust. The seed remains patiently awaiting 
until, after a year perhaps, another shower calls into 
being a new generation. 
In the Karoo, which is not quite so unmitigated a 
desert as the Kalahari-or Sahara, the change produced 
by rain is enchanting. 
The faintest tinge of green or grey spreads over the 
arid, brownish yellow of its surface. Soon it is studded 
all over with yellows, rich reds, whites, and other brilliant 
colours of Pelargoniums, Mesembryanthemums, Poly- 
galas, and hundreds of other flowers. 
One is apt to think that the very stones have become 
alive. 
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