48 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



eight inches from the ground, and though so valuable 

 to farmers, it is but unpretending in appearance, with 

 tiny, narrow leaves, and a little, round, bright yellow 

 flower, exactly resembling the centre of an English 

 daisy after its oracle has been consulted, and its last 

 petal pulled by some enquiring Marguerite. 



The fei-hosch is another of our commonest and most 

 useful plants ; its pinkish-lilac flower is very like that 

 of the portulacca, and its little flat succulent leaves 

 look like miniature prickly pear leaves without the 

 prickles-; hence its name, from TurJc-fei, Turkish fig. 

 When flowering in large masses, and seen at a little 

 distance, the fei-bosch might almost be taken for 

 heather. 



The brack'bosch, which completes our trio of very 

 best kinds of ostrich-bush, is a taller and more grace- 

 ful plant than either of the preceding, with blue-green 

 leaves, and blossom consisting of a spike of little 

 greenish tufts; but there are an endless variety of 

 other plants, among which there is hardly one that is 

 not good nourishing food for the birds. 



All are alike succulent and full of salt, giving out a 

 crisp, crackling sound as you walk over them ; all have 

 the same strange way of growing, each plant a little 

 isolated patch by itself, just as the tufts of wool grow 

 on the Hottentots' heads; and the flowers of nearly 

 all are of the portulacca type, some large, some small, 

 some growing singly, others in clusters; they are of 

 different colours — white, yellow, orange, red, pink, 

 lilac, etc. They are very delicate and fragile flowers ; 



