The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-28
SOUTH AFRICAN FLOWERS.
April and May Are Fall Months, but
the Blooms Are of Spring.

northern spring, both in weather and in
vegetation. The caprices of April display
themselves similarly In showers and sun
shine alternately. and the same kind of
chilliness in the atmosphere is perceptible
as here when we say. Rain is in the air."
And in addition to this, you see the fields
and roadsides, which for months have been
brown, barren and unsightly, suddenly
clothed with green. and within week with
flowers. brilliant and abundant that you
have seen before, and you cannot divest
your mind of the impression that the sea-
son is actual spring, and not autumn
April is truly the opening month there,
as at home. and May. as in England, sees
the landscape at its freshest. The reason
is evident. The summer heat and drought,
which baked the earth deep down, and
the touch, is now succeeded by rains,
which turn ii into a veritable hotbed, and
act like magic in clothing the dried-up and
barren places with verdure. This may not
invariably be the case; nor may the change
be so sudden In all parts of the extensive
area that We call South Africa, which en-
braces such varied physical features: high
mountains, rocky and rugged, deep and
well-watered valleys, elevated table lands,
and vast desert regions where during the
dry season not drop of water is seen
for miles. Consequently the climate also
varies considerably, and the seasons are
less marked than in Europe, those OF
agriculture and vegetation being more de-
pendent on the weat her. Dependent also
on another evil, locusts. Rains may be
propitious and vegetation correspondingly
luxuriant, but the locuSts on their part
may defeat moisture and every green thing
may vanish in twenty-four hours. Drought
and locusts are the two natural enemies OF
the colony.
But there were no locusts In the part
where L was that year, the extreme south,
where the natural conditions seemed more
of spring than autumn. 1t was in Septem-
Der, the actual spring, when / first saw
the Cape, and then most of our common
English garden flowers that had been ac-
climatiZed were in bloom. Daisies, pansies,
stocks, pinks. wallfowers. etc., besides the
countless native plants known only in our
greenhouses in England. But the acclima-
tized plants looked as If they had never
been out of bloom, and more IL they
were going off. as our perennials do
toward the end of summer. 1t seemed as IL
the climate had turned the ANIMALS into
perennials. Remarking on this to the
superintendent of botanical gardens at
is the colder climate that has turned some
of our constant boomers into annuals;"
that in the colder regions there was
which vegetation is checked, when plants
and trees hibernate in fact; whereas at the
Cape the repoSe in vegetation Is very
short, accimatiZed trees shedding their
leaves for a short period of six weeks only,
or two months at most, and this often dur
ing the hottest season. Indeed, / do not
of leaves as in our English winters, as the
new growth begins before the old leaves
have fallen. The true winter or period
or rest is therefore estivation rather than
Information. ours is a winter fiora," said
Professor MacOwan.
During the latter there are more of the
delicate herbaceous plants like the wood
sorrel and other lovely little native species
too numerous to mention. These cannot
stand the summer droughts. But during
the former-the orthodox spring-the char
rfcffa lonfC of he
bulbs, tuberS and the thick-leaved kinds
which have adapted themselves to the cli-
mate. Everywhere abound the fieshy
leaved cacti, opuntias and mesembryanthe-
NUNS, of which there are several hundred
species. and others which store up moisture
in themselves and exist throughout the
driest season. An agriculturist told me
that during seasons of drought Sheppard
especially ewes with lambs-feed freely on
the Observation-Disclosures, whose succu-
lence enables the animals to do without
water. Remarkably abundant are the yari-
Gus species OF these Observation-Disclosures,
which serve so useful purpose; some are
very large. as big as a great cabbage and
with brilliant blossoms. In some regions
vast tracts are covered with these Succu-
lent plants to the exclusion of almost all
other vegetation, and they present a bril-
liant mass of colors where but few weeks
ago the ground was blackened by the sum-
mer drought as if a fire had swept over
il. Among the succulent classes, or those
which store moisture in either leaves or
one of which, commonly known as finger
poll, holds so much moisture it is cut I'D
as food for cattle. Some ten of the aloes
strike one as almost grotesque In their
form. They have an arboreal stem of huge
proportions surmounted by mere tuft of
leaves which look ridiculously unimportant
on this vast trunk.
And thus it was that in May, the first
winter month of the almanac the ground
is covered with new and brilliant carpet
of blossoms though they sometimes begin
to N
season every bank and bit of roadside
waste is spangled with the lovely little
sometimes several colors in the same To-
cality. In May, too, in our English woods
the wood correl is In bloom. and it's deli
cate white petals vein ned, with purple are
a yellow species, trailing sOrrel less COM
mon; but the cape species-pink, white,
crimson, yellow-are abundant as are
primroses in our English copses. More so,
indeed because, not growing in clumps
from one large root, they overspread the
ground without vacant space, and look
so soft and lovely and attractive that you
feel disposed to make couch of the bank
and bury your face in the exquisite masses.
But they are too beautiful to be thus
crushed, and you fill your hands instead.
After the first rains the countless bulbs
push up their scapes with incredible ra-
pidity; then follow lilies, irises, gladioli,
numerous species of amarylis and many
other plants for which the winter temper
allure is sufficiently mild. And all these
are wild flowers of which you may gather
armSful and no one say you may" OF
pelargoniumS there are ia known species
in Cape Colony, and most of them continue
TO blossom the whole year round. Some
become veritable shrubs of nine ten feet
high, with stems as big as your wrist.
So, In fact, do the heiiotropes and verbenas,
one species of the latter growing on Table
mountain having stems stout enough to be
suggestive of cultivation for timber. This
is the season of the yuccas. also, which.
with their long and splendid spikes of white
blossoms, grow TO a height of fifteen or
twenty feet and are very conspicuous in
the gardens. AS far vegetation is con-
cerned, we may thus say there are two
springs in South Africa. viz, the actual
spring of lengthening days and the in
creasing heat. which is our autumn and
the floral spring, which follows the autumn
rains, which is our spring also.
There was one in the botanical gardens
at Cape Town whose skin was like an i'm
mense barrel in form. the very largest
"hogshead," out of which grew a trivial
bunch OF greenery. But those massive
dense exterior to defy evaporation. while
within they soft and spongy, holding
sufficient moisture to sustain the roots OF
the bulky shrub in the driest of seasons.
In the moist, low-lying lands of arum
abounds. You can trace the course of a
spathes, which at little distance look as
II a stationer had been tearing up his
tire stock OF writing paper and scattering
the pieces wherever he walked. AS we
pass through our greenhouses and hot
houses at home we do not give much
many of our most beautiful Towering
plants and shrubs. but we shall find that
to no country SO much as 10 Africa are we
indebted for them. for no single country OF