32S 
The Garden Magazine, July, 1923 
THE CAPE PRIMROSE 
“Another modern group of greenhouse (lowers we owe to 
South Africa is Streptocarpus, the Cape Primrose” (see 
page 247, June G. M.); polyanthus variety shown above 
Cape Heaths that Clothe Square Miles in Beauty 
I N ELEGANCE, beauty and wealth of blossoms the Cape 
Heaths are not excelled by any group of shrubs the world 
over. Their loveliness is fascinating; their charm irresisti¬ 
ble; their variety seemingly infinite; and every month of 
the year finds them bearing flowers in thousands. In size 
they vary from prostrate mats to sturdy bushes from 5 to 
10 feet tall and as much in diameter. They are mostly 
social plants and often clothe acres and square miles of the 
countryside like their near relative the Heather ol the Scots 
moors. They grow on sandy fiats, in swampy places, and 
on bleak, rock strewn mountain slopes. Their clustered, 
multicolored flowers are of ever}' hue and often each flower 
combines two or more color schemes. In many the stamens are prominent 
and conspicuously colored. In size the flowers vary from tiny bells or urns, 
each no larger than a pin’s head, to tubes an inch and more long. Some have 
the flowers clustered at the ends of the shoots; in others the flowers clothe 
nearly the whole of the current season’s growth. All have small leaves and 
twiggy branches and are extraordinarily floriferous. These we may consider 
generic characters, but in diversity of form and in color of flowers Mother 
Nature has frollicked with the Cape Heaths as with no other genus of shrubs. 
Certain districts such as the Cape promontory, Caledon, Riversdale, and George 
are specially famous for their variety of Heaths, but to me it seemed that 
these plants luxuriated everywhere in the coastal region while not a few were 
happy under the drier conditions of the contiguous plateau. My visit to the 
Cape happened in the autumn—the off season for Heaths—yet 1 collected in 
blossom more than 100 species and saw millions of plants laden with flowers. A 
scientist must not gush, and with the task of discoursing on the flowers of 
the world at large 1 have to be particularly careful in the use of superlatives; 
but the strongest in our language—or any other language—would not exagger¬ 
ate the beauty of the Ericas of the Cape of Good Hope. 
To the garden-lover of from 50 to 100 years ago Cape Heaths made the 
Cape famous. He knew, admired, and grew these plants to perfection in the 
crudely heated greenhouses of the day. In Andrews’s four volume work en¬ 
titled “Heaths,” published 1802-30, colored plates of 288 species and varieties 
are given. All are drawn from plants which flowered in the British Isles. One 
nursery firm, that of Lee and Kennedy, of Hammersmith, grew 228 kinds and 
these are listed by Andrews. With the decline of indoor gardening in Europe, 
and of what little there ever was in this country, and the specialization which 
has increased so greatly with the development of modern greenhouses, Cape 
Heaths—except a few of the toughest sorts—have become lost to gardens. 
Never the easiest of subjects to successfully grow in pots, they required skillful 
handling and more attention than the modern gardener either could or would 
give, and this as much as a change of fashion caused their wholesale disap¬ 
pearance from Northern conservatories. In California the few species remain¬ 
ing thrive luxuriantly out-of-doors, and had gardens flourished in the neighbor- 
SPARMANNIA AFRICANA 
One of the finest white-flowered shrubs or small trees 
(10-20 ft. high) in cultivation, this native of South Africa 
finds itself also comfortably at home in southern California 
