12 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



of stalks, from which hang showers of pale pink blossoms. It is 

 certainly not as tall as D. pendula or pulcherrima, but there is nothing 

 dwarf or reduced about it. It is quite distinct. I have found it 

 also in Natal. 



D. pendula or pulcherrima is widely distributed. I have seen it 

 on the hills between Alicedale and Grahamstown, as well as in various 

 parts of the Transkei. In East Griqualand we found a tall, large- 

 flowered one pure white. None of any other colour grew anywhere 

 near it. But in another part of the Transkei we found D. pendula 

 of all colours growing together on the top of a wind-swept hill. They 

 were of the deep pink of D. pulcherrima, a pale lilac -pink, some white, 

 and some a deep claret, of which the buds were quite black (fig. 12). 

 We brought back bulbs of all these to the Tembuland garden. We have 

 anotherthere which is almost blue, something of the colour of a purple 

 crocus, and of its shape upside down. We are not quite sure where it 

 came from ; probably it was not in blossom when we dug it up. All 

 have not only flowered but seeded so well that from the seed I sent home 

 they are coming up in my brother's greenhouse at Canterbury, at 

 Kew, and especially at Cambridge, in quantities like grass, and I 

 hope to have a large collection from which not only to classify the 

 species, but to distribute. They ought to be fairly hardy, for they 

 grow in coarse grass on hilltops without any shelter, and have a good 

 deal of frost in the winter. I remember seeing what I believe were 

 Dieramas some years ago in a sheltered part of the late Mr. Ewbank's 

 garden at Ryde. He pointed them out to me as Cape bulbs which 

 he had succeeded in growing in the open. They also grow out of 

 doors in the R.H.S. Garden at Wisley. 



I have been asked why, in describing flowers, the Cape botanists 

 never mention their colour. The reason is that they generally regard 

 colour only as a local incident, not an inherent property or distin- 

 guishing feature. It is quite true that colour varies in Africa almost 

 more than anywhere else ; and from my own observation of the 

 Dieramas growing wild over a very large area I should say that Baker 

 was misled by the colour of what he called D. pulcherrima into making 

 a distinct species of it ; and that he was misled in the same way into 

 calling D. pendula var. pumila a mere variety. 



Take, for instance, the Cape Babianas. On Table Mountain they 

 are of a bright magenta pink. In the Claremont woods, at the foot 

 of the mountain, they are of the most lovely lavender blue. On the 

 Cape Flats, near the foot of Sir Lowry's Pass, they are of a very dark 

 blue, much the colour of the common blue flag iris of our gardens at 

 home. A little way up Sir Lowry's Pass they are again of a lavender 

 blue, but greyer, paler, and not as bright as in the Claremont woods. And 

 at Caledon, further south on the mainland, they are of all shades of 

 magenta pink down to pure white. 



I have not dissected any of these flowers, but from ordinary obser- 

 vation I have not perceived any structural differences. 



Again, I have noticed that a very common Felicia, a bush like 



