CAPE FLOWERS AT HOME 
49 
but has also arrogated to itself the name of the Cape gooseberry. 
Of the same family is the little black nightshade, which is 
poisonous with you in Europe, but in our sunny clime has laid 
all its deadliness aside. It is still the same species, but children 
eat it freely. There is a herb, sometimes becoming a shrub, 
which has distributed itself along all the river beds in the 
Karroo. The farmers from near Kimberley sent down some 
specimens to our agricultural department and begged to be told 
how to eradicate this “ Scotch thistle.” Professor MacOwan, 
with his usual caustic humour, told them he would gladly help 
to eradicate it, but that in the first place it was not a thistle, and 
in the second place it was not Scotch. It turned out to be a 
Mexican poppy, Argemone mcxicana. It is a beautiful plant and 
has a beautiful flower, but the farmers would rather see it waste 
its sweetness on the desert air. 
Our forest regions, which have been sadly spoiled by careless- 
ness and recklessness, would deserve pages of description by 
themselves, but I am not so familiar with them as with the flora 
of the Cape Peninsula itself. A single sentence from the 
Government Report will give an admirable picture of the kind 
of flora there. If a bit of the forest has been accidentally burnt 
down, it is necessary to replant it immediately with well-grown 
young trees, a large stock of which is kept in hand for the pur- 
pose ; otherwise the undergrowth will get the upper hand. 
The Report says: “ In a few months, if left to itself, the soil 
will be covered with a luxuriant growth of ferns and weeds, 
followed by an impenetrable thicket of bramble, Helichrysum, 
Metalasia, Cape Gooseberry, Psoraleas, Rhus and Pelargoniums, 
in which state planting becomes difficult and expensive.” 
Perhaps I have said enough to give a general sort of idea 
of our flora as it is at home. Those who wish to know more 
about it without diving into specialised scientific volumes will 
find a very good account in the “ Official Handbook of the Cape 
and South Africa,” published by Messrs. J. C. Juta and Co., Cape 
Town. In this book the chapter of the flora was written by 
Mr. Bolus of Cape Town, the well-known authority on orchids, 
and the chapter on woods and forests was written by Mr. 
Hutchins, the Conservator of Forests. We are of course proud 
of all the glories we have given to European gardens, but 
botanical knowledge is gradually spreading amongst us and we 
are continually discovering other beauties in our flora at home 
than such as appeal merely to the eye or the nose. Many of 
the great problems of evolution are open for investigation in 
South Africa to a degree unsurpassed by any other part of the 
world. 
F. C. Kolbe. 
