438 FIX>WERS — SUNDEW. 



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, which exists 

 in such numbers 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 this 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, which elsewhere 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 attention 

 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 shining on drops of dew, but, as it con- 

 tinued to maintain its brilliancy (hiring 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 quite unable to move on, my men soon 

 found water to allay my burning thirst by digging with 

 sticks a few feet beneath the surface. We had thus an 

 opportunity of observing the state of these remarkable 



