Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1892-04-13
TREES OF SOUTH AMERICA,
The Roots of the Karoo Provide Against
Long Droughts.

| The Roots of the Karoo Provide Against
Long Droughts.
In the spring in years when rain has
fallen for two months the Karoo is a
| flower garden. AS far as the eye can
reach stretch blotches of white and yell
low and purple fig flowers. Every foot
of Karoo sand is brol1enuup by small
Towering lilies and wax flowers; in a
space of a few square feet you may
sometimes gather fifty kinds. In the
crevices of the rocks little, hard-leaved
Towering air-plants are growing. At
| the end of two months the bloom is
over, the bulbs have died back into the
ground by millions, the fig blossoms are
withered, the Karoo assumes the red
and brown tints which it wears all the
rest of the year Sometimes there is
no spring. At intervals of few years
| great droughts occur, when no rain
| falls.
For ten or thirteen months the sky is
| cloudless. The Karoo bushes drop their
leaves and are dry, withered stalks; the
fountains fail, and the dams are foored
with dry-baked mud, which splits up
into little squares; the sheep and goats
die by thousands and the Karoo is a
desert. 1t is to provide for these long
rainless periods that all the plant-life
in the Karoo is modified. Nothing that
can not retain life habitually for six
months, and at need for twice that time,
without rain, can exist here. The
Karoo bush itself provides against
drought by roots of enormous length,
| stretching under ground to depth of
| many feet. At the end of ten months
| drought, when the earth is baked
brickdust for two feet from the sur
face, If you break the dried stalk of a
Karoo bush three inches high, you will
| find running down the center a tiny
thread of pale green-tinted tissues still
alive with sap.
Many plants live by means of feshy
| bulbs buried deep under the ground,
and in years when no rain falls they
do not appear above the surface, or
flower. Many plants have thick, feshy
leaves, in which they store up moisture
against the time of need; some, such as
the common sorrel and dandelion, be,
come elephants; all over their feshy
leaves and stems are little diamond
like drops, which when broken are
found to be full of pure water, little
plant sometimes having a cupful stored
in this way. Some live by having their
leaves pressed closely together into lit
tie solid squares Or balls, SO saving all
| corporations from their surfaces.
The air plants, which are fastened by
the slenderest roots to the ground or
| rocks, live entirely On any moisture
they may draw from the air, and will
grow and bloom for months in a house
without any water. In other ways the
intense dryness modifes vegetation;
food being scarce, all forms of vegeta-
ton are eargerly sought after by
| animals, and an unusual number
are protected by thorns or by
such an intense bitterness that no ami
NAL will touch them. One little plant
protects itself by assuming curious
likeness to a white lichen that covers
the rocks. The plant has sharp-point-
ed green leaves; these are placed close
together, with their points upward, and
and on the tip of each leaf is little
white, scaly sheath.
The resemblance of the smooth sur
face these present to the ichen grow
ing on the rocks, beside which it is al
ways found, is SO great that it is not
till you tread on it that you discover
the deception. Even on insects the
stern conditions of life have a marked
effect. Imitation coloring is more COM
mon here than elsewere. One little in
sect is so like the white pebbles near
which it is always found, and lies so
motionless among them, that once
dropped it can not be found again; an
other large, square locust, with hardly
any power of fight, protects itself by
simply lying motionless on red stones,
which it so exactly resembles in color,
having even rough cleavage marks upon
it, that it is often impossible to detect it
when you know it is there. f ortnight-
" Review.