472 
FLOWERS — SUNDEW. 
CHAr. XXIV. 
other water-hirds, 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 tlie Zambesi, where every 
water-fowl has a home. 
While passing across these interminable-looldng plains, the eye 
rests with pleasure on a small flower, which 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 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 colom’ is varied from the lightest tint, 
to dark blue and even purple. I had before observed the same 
flower possessing different colom’s in different parts of the country, 
and once, a great number of liver-coloured flowers, which 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 agam 
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 ovm sundew {Brosera 
Anglica) ; the flower-stalk never attams a height of more than 
two or three inches, and the leaves are covered with reddish 
hau’s, 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 shinuig 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 hquid, in, apparently, capsules of clear 
glutinous matter. They were thus like dewdi’ops preserved from 
evaporation. The clammy fluid is intended to entrap insects, 
which, dying on the leaf, probably yield nutriment to the plant. 
During om* 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 iu tliis region; and now, when I was quite unable 
to move on, my men soon found water to allay my burning thust 
