330 
The Garden Magazine, July, 1923 
South China. In many parts of India and China these plants to-day 
serve as hedges to fence in homesteads. 
Stapelia and Huernia are tufted plants with short, succulent, angular, 
knotty stems. Most of the species, and there are a great number, 
have more or less star-shaped flowers mottled and barred with blackish 
brown or purple and emit an offensive carrion-odor. They attract 
flies of all sorts and these insects 
lay their eggs in the flowers and 
at the same time effect fertilisation. 
The flowers vary from half to two 
inches in diameter, but those of 
Stapelia grandiflora are fully 6 
inches across, pale without, black¬ 
ish purple and bearded on the inner 
surface. 
Abundant and beautiful in blos¬ 
som are the Mesembryanthemums 
of South Africa. They are a fea¬ 
ture of the Karroo where they cover 
large tracts. In the vegetative 
characters they exhibit a very 
wide range of variation. Some 
are much branched little bushes; 
others sprawl on the ground with 
stems many yards long; others are 
cushion-like with two or three 
short, thick, spreading leaves raised 
a few inches above the earth or 
erect and buried with just their 
summit flush with the soil surface 
and look for all the world like small 
pebbles. So great is the similarity 
that when not in blossom the most 
argus-eyed person cannot distin¬ 
guish between vegetable and rock 
substances on the Karroo. In those 
species which have erect, thick, 
fleshy leaves below ground th; apex 
of the leaf, which is on a level with 
the soil surface, is of colorless tissue. 
These transparent layers of cells pro¬ 
tect the leaf from loss of moisture 
and at the same time admit light 
freely to the green coloring matter 
contained in the tissues beneath. In 
short they are windows protecting 
the chlorophyll grains from extremes 
of temperature and allowing these 
bodies to look at the sun by day 
and the starry heavens by night. 
The flowers of these peculiar plants are from f to i| inches across 
white, yellow, and pink and perched upon short stalks appear to be 
independent of any plant and as little stools of color dot the desert on 
all sides. Succulent plants belong to many genera and there are hun¬ 
dreds of species, but I must conclude with mention of Rochea falcata 
and R. coccinea, well-known old garden plants, which among other 
places flourish on Table Mountain. The first-named has pale gray, 
fleshy, 6-inch long, sickle-shaped leaves and broad terminal heads of 
orange-red flowers each with conspicuous yellow anthers. The other 
has small green leaves crowded on the stems and terminal heads of 
scarlet flowers. Both favor rocky places and are particularly happy in 
niches in the vertical walls of rock safe in their inaccessibility from 
wanton hands. 
“A Child of the Mists” and Her Kin 
A ND what shall be said of the Cape bulbs? Their variety is very 
great, and their garden value of immense importance. To the 
Cape we owe our Freesias, Nerines, Vallotas, Ixias, Lachenalias, Wat- 
sonias, Sparaxias, and Babianas; also the lesser known Haemanthus, 
Buphane, Brunsvigia, Albuca, Cyrtanthus, Antholyza and others; the 
well-known Crinum capensis, Ornithogalum thyrsoides, Gallonia candi- 
cans, the superb Belladonna Lily, and, to cut the list short, Gladiolus 
including the species from which the hybridist has evolved our garden 
races. These well-known names are a sufficient reminder of our in¬ 
debtedness. Of none, not even Gladiolus, have the full uses been 
made and many have been quite neglected. All are remarkable for the 
brilliancy of their blossoms, but not a few are shy to flower under the 
gray Northern skies. They miss 
the hot suns of their native land 
which in the dry season bakes the 
earth and ripens their bulbs. A 
majority of them rest through the 
dry season, bursting into flower at 
the end and make their growth dur¬ 
ing the rains. In figuring this out it 
should be remembered that the sea¬ 
sons are opposite to ours and that 
the rainy-season is that of winter 
in the western part and summer in 
the eastern, northern and interior 
parts of South Africa. Cape bulbs 
in general are found deep down be¬ 
low the surface of the ground where 
they are protected from the exces¬ 
sive heat of the sun and from that of 
fires which frequently sweep the 
land. The bulbs flourish and blos¬ 
som best under full exposure to 
the heavens; when bushes invade 
their domain they flower sparsely 
or not at all until a fire destroys the 
scrub. Cracks and niches in boulders 
and cliffs are favorite places for 
plants like Nerine, and there they 
luxuriate with the bulbs exposed or 
covered only bv their own dried 
up foliage. 
Most of the Cape bulbs are found 
in the drier rocky parts, but the 
Watsonias are partial to acid soils 
and the different species of Gladiolus 
are found under a variety of climatic 
conditions. Certain species like G. 
alatus, G. cuspidatus and G. angustus 
are confined to the western part of 
the Cape where winter rains prevail; 
others, like G. purpureo-auratus and 
G. dracocephalus, to Natal with its 
heavy summer rains; a few, like 
G. psittacinus and G. Saundersii, are 
common to both regions. Some, as 
for example G. cardinalis and G. splendens, are native of those parts 
where the annual rainfall is fairly equally distributed, but is not exces¬ 
sive. Lastly there is G. primulinus, a child of the mists, whose home 
on the banks of the Zambesi River is constantly bathed in the spray 
from the wonderful Victoria Falls which are 400 feet high and a mile 
wide. 
A few of her bulbous plants have gained a permanent place in North¬ 
ern gardens and are to-day, perhaps, the best appreciated of the floral 
gifts the Cape has so freely bestowed upon us. As a class they deserve 
a full article, not cursory mention of just a few, but my tale must end. 
Of this land of sunshine and its exuberant wealth of lovely flowers 1 
have endeavored to throw on the canvas just an occasional splash of 
color. No words can describe nor brush portray the full picture. In 
farewell our glimpse may fittingly linger on the beautiful Belladonna Lily 
with its large pale pink to rose pink, funnel-form flowers each flushed 
with yellow on the throat and borne many together in an umbel crown¬ 
ing a stout, naked stalk some two feet tall. Fortunately this gem is no 
stranger to garden-lovers of the North for it has made itself quite at 
home among us. A common wild plant on the slopes of Table Moun¬ 
tain and elsewhere, Amaryllis Belladonna, is a worthy product of a 
country, great and rich, destined to be the abiding home of millions of 
the white race—aptly named the Cape of Good Hope. 
AMARYLLIS BELLADONNA 
“In farewell our glimpse may fittingly linger on the beautiful Bella¬ 
donna Lily,” long loved in northern gardens for its autumn bloom 
Having traveled with Mr. Wilson through Australia and South Africa we next go to the Orient for a survey of the plant life of China 
and Japan. The exclusive privilege of publishing these accounts of “Chinese Wilson s’’ recent explorations has been accorded 
The Garden Magazine and the earlier instalments appeared in our January, February, March, April, May and June issues. 
