The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-10-17

Changes In Vegetation Succeed One Al
other in Great Rapidity.

SUMMER AT THE CAPE.
Changes in Vegetation Succeed One An.
other in Great Rapidity.
Time passes pleasantly on the first
summer days, the sun being not yet too
hot and the atmosphere feeling es-
pecially bracing along the uplands.
Evening comes upon you quickly, and
the subtle fragrance of the G6end6t0em,
or night gladiolus. is distilled around
will be little or no twilight, and, in
short time, you may see, if you linger
on the mountain paths. the long lines
of phosphoroscent waves breaking on
the beach below. The botanical
madness when once it seizes its vic
TINS, can be cured by no Anticyra.
nor will even the hellebore bring relief.
Of physical difficulties by food and field
the Cape botanists have thought moth
ing while collecting the countless floral
treasures. Thunberg, Sparrman and
Burchell are all names which recall
hard privations and almost marvellous
exertlons among the mountains and on
the veldt of South Africa. Old Thun-
berg enumerates his perils by land and
perils by water, as if his mission were
sacred one, but all was undergone, viz:
the "Alpes altos, pr@cipitia montium.
sylvas inconditas ct gentes feroces,"
in order to advance in his own language
the dnad6iks scaenttG which gives a
Iinqua Franco and a common object
to- all. Still, =. however wonder
full the display cf botanical wealth
on Table Mountain and elsewhere in
South Africa, it lacks the one saving
virtue of old association. Of those mar,
velous beautiful eyes that look up at
you from the earth, there is no familiar
one. There are no buttercups. daffodils,
ragged robbins, fox gloves, white cuckoo
flower, dandelions, stitch work, and all
the rest. Above ALL there are no sweet
singing thrushes, mellow blackbirds, or
tiny wrens, nightingales or chafinches
only the Bok-ma-kerie.
Early summer at the Cape is short.
AS ambrosial night comes down quickly,
80 does ambrosial summer. just in
September and October there is in in
terval between the nor Invest gales
prevalent in winter, and the south
east Trades. Later in the sum-
mer the southeast called the "Cape-
town DOCTOR" is particularly
annoying and vexatious wind, raising
clouds of red dust in the streets and
suburbs. Along the green and sprout-
ing hedges it soon works wild havoc.
A single rough day will destroy all the
tender and delicate bloom of spring
and wither up the foliage, the wind be-
ing dry and thirsty. This wind comes
when the skies are cloudless, and not
the least extraordinary phenomenon to
an English eye, accustomed to storms
with driving mist and hail, will be a
southeast gale, with high barometer
and perfectly clear sky, the cerulean
depths of which seem fathomless. The
face of Table Mountain reflects faith
fully the changes that succeed one
another rapidly. First of all, the
meadows at it's bass are green, full
of the leaves of the wild arum;
next the poplars grow green, and
in a wonderfully short space of
time along its slopes, the Kuer-
boom puts forth it's sweet-scented flow
ers like a vetch. Ere this has bios
somed the proteas EMBODIED in their
outer cases will unroll themselves in
hosts, and invite the green honeybirds
to dip their long curved beaks into their
cloying depths; the hedges of plumbago
will look like bands of light blue. and
presently the sloping vineyards planted
in neat and orderly rows will sprout
with tender shoots. In the midst of
sloping fir woods and the avenues of
budding oak, these patches of cultivated
plots will show clearly and distinctly in
all their neatness from the heights of
Table Mountain. So, little by little,
the old mountain, from lowest spur to
highest peak surrenders to the advent
of summer, and the line of green mounts
higher every day.-Murray's Magazine.