PLANTS OF THE KARROO, 53 



garments and in my own, took up a large proportjon of 

 time ; and often did I congratulate myself on the fact 

 that my riding-habit at least — chosen contrary to the 

 advice of friends at home, who all counselled coolness 

 and lightness above everything — was of such stout, 

 strong cloth as to defy most of the thorns. Any less 

 substantial material would have been reduced to rib- 

 bons in some of our rides. 



On foot, you are perpetually assailed by the great 

 strong hooks of the wild asparagus, a troublesome 

 enemy, whose long straggling branches trailing over the 

 ground are most destructive to the skirts of dresses ; 

 while boots have deadly foes, not only in the shape of 

 rough ground and hard, sharp-pointed stones, but also 

 in that of numerous prickly and scratchy kinds of 

 small bush. At the end of one walk in the veldt, the 

 surface of a kid boot is all rubbed and torn into little 

 ragged points, and is never again fit to be seen. For- 

 tunately, in the Karroo, no one is over-particular about 

 such small details. 



Among our troublesome plants, one of the worst and 

 most plentiful is the prickly pear; and farmers have 

 indeed no reason to bless the old Dutchwoman who, by 

 simply bringing one leaf of it from Cape Town to 

 Graaif-Reinet, was the first introducer of what has be- 

 come so great a nuisance. It spreads with astonishing 

 rapidity, and is so tenacious of life that a leaf, or even a 

 small portion of a leaf, if thrown on the ground, strikes 

 out roots almost immediately, and becomes the parent 

 of a fast-growing plant ; and it is not without great 



