Deserts 
Things which look like fragments of white quartz or 
brownish-grey objects, flushed with dull green, which 
are exactly like thousands of stones around them, 
suddenly produce flowers. The first are found to be 
Anacampseros papyracea, and the second Mesembry- 
anthemum Bolusii.? 
Amongst the yellow and brown shales of Bruintje’s 
Hoogte, or other similarly named places, one finds 
Mesembryanthema and Stapelias, 
A casual observer or a hungry antelope would never 
have detected the difference between these objects, 
which are edible, in an emergency, and their surround- 
ing stones. 
After rain everything is fresh, vigorous, green, and 
growing. Dry, woody little mats, thorntufts a few 
inches high, flower and put out fresh leaves, and one 
finds Polygalas, Indigoferas, Aptosimums, and all sorts 
of odd South African genera in bewildering variety. 
The author noticed a patch of bright scarlet a mile 
and a half away, and found it to be a single plant of 
Brunsvigia. 
In a week or two all is over. Everything green has 
withered up, and its brownish, yellow or grey dust fades 
into the monotonous aridity of the Karoo, which re- 
mains a desert for months together. 
It is the succulents which are, perhaps, the most im- 
pressive of alldesert plants. Their odd shapes, spheres, 
fleshy pillars, candelabras, swollen, gouty-looking stems 
or bulbous dropsical leaves are very remarkable. Many 
have long grey hairs, or are covered over by a system 
of stout curved spines, which are generally sharp, 
smooth, and shining. They have in most cases a peculiar 
pale bluish or light green colour, which is due to a de- 
posit of wax on the outer surface, 
But their most remarkable peculiarity consists in some 
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