New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-09-06
QUEER PLANTS IN SOUTH AFRICA.
From The Fortnighty Review


In the spring In the years when rain has fallen for
two months tile Karoa is flower garden. As tar as
the eye can reach stretch bloches OF white and yellow
and purple fig flowers. Every foot Of Karoo sand is
broken up by small Towering lilies and wax-howers In
space few feet square you may sometimes gather
fifty kinds In the crevces OF the rocks little hard,
leaved Towering arplants growing. At the end
OF two months the bloom is the bulbs have died
back into the ground by millions. the fig blossoms arc
withercd. the Karoo assumes the red and brown nts
which IT wears all the rest Of the year Sometimes
there is spring. At intervals of few years great
dr. uths occur, when rain falls For ten thirteen
months the shy is oloudless. The KaroO bushes drop
their leaves and dry witheed stalks the fountains
fail and the dams are fOOred with dry baked mud.
which splits up into little squares the sheep and goats
provide for these long rainless periods that all the
plant life in the Karoo is modified. Nothing that
cannot retain life habltusy for six months, and at
need for twice that time without ran can exist here
Of enormous length stretching under ground TO depth
Of many feet At the end Of ten.months' dronth,
The surface il Won break the dried stalk of Karoo
bush three inches high, You viii find running down
the centre tiny thread of pale, gTeenunted tissue
MANY plants i've by means of feshy bulbs buried
deep under the ground, and in years when no rain
fails they do not appear above the % Sr Sey
store mp moisture against the time OF need some suen
the common sOrTel and dandeIon become Zoe plahts
all over their heshy leaves and stems are little da
mond-llbe drops which when broken are found TO be
full Of water little plant sometimes III Ssv hsn I.r
leaves closely pressed together into little solid squares
balls. saving all evaporation from ther snr,aees
roots 10 the ground or rocks, live entirely on any
moisture they may draw from the air. and viii grow
and bloom for months in a mouse without any wafer
In other WAYS the intense dryness mOdhes vegetauOn
food being all forms OF vegetation are easerH
sought after by animals. and unusual number are
protected by thorrs by such an intense btterness
that no animal will touch them. one niue pi ntn
projects Itself by assuming curious likeness TO white
chen that covers the rocks the plant has sharppOnt
ed green leaves these are placed close tOselner Nun
their points upward and the tip OF each lear Is
nttle white scay sheath. The resemblance OF tne
smooth surface these present to the chen growing on
the rocks beside which IL IS sways found. Is so great
that II not tn you tread on II that you discover ne
deception Even insects the stern condltons OF lne
mon here than elsewhere. One little insect Is SO IKE
the white pebbles which 1t Is always iound. ana
lne so motOnless among them. that once dropped IL
cannot be found again: another large. square locust
with hardly any power of flight protects ltSeu Dy
simnlv living motionless red stones which IL so eX
actIv resembles I'm colo, having even rough cleavage
marks upon It, that Il Is often impossible TO detect F"
when you know 1t Is there.