472 FLOWERS — SUNDEW. Chap. XXIV. 



other water-birds, flying over the spots not yet dried up; and 

 occasionally wild ducks, but these only in numbers sufficient to 

 remind us that we were approaching the Zambesi, where every 

 water-fowl has a home. 



While passing across these interminable-looking plains, the eye 

 rests with pleasure on a small flower, winch exists in such num- 

 bers as to give its own hue to the ground. One broad band of 

 yellow stretches across our path. On looking at the flowers which 

 formed tins golden carpet, we saw every variety of that colour, 

 from the palest lemon to the richest orange. Crossing a hundred 

 yards of this, we came upon another broad band of the same 

 flower, but blue, and this colour is varied from the lightest tint, 

 to dark blue and even purple. I had before observed the same 

 flower possessing different colours in different parts of the country, 

 and once, a great number of liver-coloured flowers, winch else- 

 where were yellow. Even the colour of the birds changed with 

 the district we passed through ; but never before did I see such a 

 marked change, as from yellow to blue, repeated again and again 

 on the same plain. Another beautiful plant attracted my atten- 

 tion so strongly on these plains, that I dismounted to examine it ; 

 to my great delight I found it to be an old home acquaintance, 

 a species of Drosera, closely resembling our own sundew (Drosera 

 Anglia) ; the flower-stalk never attains a height of more than 

 two or three inches, and the leaves are covered with reddish 

 hairs, each of which has a drop of clammy fluid at its tip, making 

 the whole appear as if spangled over with small diamonds. I 

 noticed it first in the morning, and imagined the appearance was 

 caused by the sun sinning on drops of dew, but, as it continued 

 to maintain its brilliancy during the heat of the day, I proceeded 

 to investigate the cause of its beauty, and found that the points 

 of the hairs exuded pure liquid, in, apparently, capsules of clear 

 glutinous matter. They were thus like dewdrops preserved from 

 evaporation. The clammy fluid is intended to entrap insects, 

 which, dying on the leaf, probably yield nutriment to the plant. 



During our second day on this extensive plain, I suffered from 

 my twenty-seventh attack of fever, at a part where no surface- 

 water was to be found. We never thought it necessary to carry 

 water with us in this region ; and now, when I was qiute unable 

 to move on, my men soon found water to allay my burning thirst 



