46 
NATURE NOTES 
or flower-garden, which generally occupies the place of honour 
in the homestead. No botanist ever got anything but a hearty 
welcome from any South African farmer. Often, if he is a wise 
man, he can get a good deal of instruction as well as a welcome, 
for these Boers, uneducated as they may be, have a keen eye for 
the plants and animals that come into their life, and sometimes 
have an astonishing knowledge of their natural properties. 
Mrs. Durrant is doubtless quite correct from the European 
point of view in calling the Streptocarpus the Cape primrose. The 
leaves are certainly very like, and so also are the habits of the 
plants, but popular names go rather by the flowers and by some- 
thing which is vaguely apprehended as the life and soul of the 
plant. What we call the Cape primrose here is the GLnothera, 
an introduced plant of large yellow flowers, brilliant with morning 
dew, especially abundant on a river’s brim. Where this flower 
grows, its relation to the children is the same as that of the 
primrose in England. The Streptocarpus grows in shady ravines 
or rocky nooks where only very adventurous children ever see it. 
The star of Bethlehem, Ornithogalum, is very justly praised 
by Mrs. Durrant. The children here call it “ chincherichee ” 
because of the whistling noise made by the stems when they are 
rubbed together. This is, of course, the original home of our 
own species, but I have always been under the impression that 
some of them come from the Holy Land, and that the name, 
“ star of Bethlehem,” signified something more than a mere 
poetic resemblance. It is too bad of Gerard to call them “ wild 
field-onions.” He might as well have given them the wider 
name of lilies. Mrs. Durrant is correct in saying that they are 
snowy-white, but correct only up to a certain point. Many of 
them are quite a brilliant orange, and even the white ones have 
a deep, dark splash in the centre. The flower is a favourite one 
w'ith us for decoration, for it remains unwithered for about a 
fortnight, and the upper buds continue to open. A curious thing 
is that, when these flowers are cut and put in a vase, the dark 
central splash gradually disappears and eventually the flower 
becomes truly snowy-white. 
Another flower justly praised is the Agapanthus, one of our 
widest spread species : I have seen it growing in the East quite 
as freely as in any garden, and it blooms on Table Mountain as 
well. As a rule the flowers are, as Mrs. Durrant says, corn- 
flower blue, but side by side with the blue ones will be found 
others that are white, and these are just as beautiful. The 
interchange between white and blue in the same species is very 
remarkable at the Cape. We see it in the Plumbago , the Lobelia 
and the Lobostemon, to mention three of our commonest flowers. 
Our little native violet, which is a rare plant with us, imitates 
its cousin, the garden violet, in the same property. 
Mrs. Durrant speaks of the everlastings" 1 as if they were 
* She specifies Helichi ysum arenarium , hut that is not a South African 
species at all : our commonest exported flower is H. veslitum. 
