Its beauties can hardly be realized unless experienced by a trip to Malmesbury, Saldanah Bay, Darling, and Tulbagh. In ordinarily good seasons the whole country round for miles is perfectly fragrant with number- less wild flowers. So many people say the flowers at the Cape have no scent, but there are so many that have ! The purple “ Africander ” for one, and the brown Africander is most deliciously sweet, a kind of gladiolus, I think, and the avond bloemtjes and the creeping protea, which smells like apricots, and very many with very strong scent which only smell sweet after sunset — by day you would say they had no scent. There is a flower very like an attenuated geranium, the leaves creep along the ground and the flower is on a long stalk — local name, Beer- blom. It has the sweetest scent you could imagine. It is not beautiful to look at, but one in a room fills it with a sweet perfume. There is a blue baviana growing very close to the ground, one of our earliest spring flowers, also very sweetly scented. i8g Sept. CAPE WILD FLOWERS Just now the hill-sides at Simonstown, and all along the slopes of the Constantia hills, are tinted pink with the lovely pink watsonia, which also emits a sweet odour. The white gladiolus, which has now become quite common, and is so exquisitely pure and white, was accidentally dis- covered by Mr. MacIntyre on his farm in Caledon. One single white flower, growing among the pink and mauve- coloured ones. He thought it was a freak of nature, but carefully took up the bulb and transplanted it, taking great care of it; the result was that in a few years it had increased to such an extent that now almost every garden in the Cape Peninsula has these lovely graceful flowers growing in clusters. Then there are very many with aromatic-scented leaves ; all the wild geraniums on Table Mountain, and the quaint little “ Kommitje Tee-water” (little cup of tea), with its pink-and-white flower that looks as though it were made of china, and many others. All who love wild flowers should come to our Cape Colony in September and October. I should like them to see the wild crimson nemesias, which we used to get on our drive to the Berg river ; and the pink and creamy ones on the ground which slopes to the sea near Groote Poste ; also the crimson droseras (sundews), between Groote Poste and Berg river. In September the ground is literally carpeted with end- less varieties of gazanias — local name, Gousbloom. All shades of yellow and orange, and a porcelain-looking white one with outer petals tinted with blue. These commonest of flowers are nevertheless very pretty. Then we have the endless varieties of mesembryanthemums, from the tiniest little ones creeping along the ground to the gorgeous scarlet and purples. These mesembryanthemums are 190 VEGETABLES. BRAISED LETTUCE SepL found every where, even in the barren Karroo ; and later on in October and November there is a white variety from which the bees gather delicious honey. This variety grows at Berg river, and other districts near the sea.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Its beauties can hardly be realized unless experienced by a trip to Malmesbury, Saldanah Bay, Darling, and Tulbagh. In ordinarily good seasons the whole country round for miles is perfectly fragrant with numberless wild flowers. So many people say the flowers at the Cape have no scent, but there are so many that have ! The purple “ Africander ” for one, and the brown Africander is most deliciously sweet, a kind of gladiolus, I think, and the avond bloemtjes and the creeping protea, which smells like apricots, and very many with very strong scent which only smell sweet after sunset — by day you would say they had no scent. There is a flower very like an attenuated geranium, the leaves creep along the ground and the flower is on a long stalk — local name, Beerblom. It has the sweetest scent you could imagine. It is not beautiful to look at, but one in a room fills it with a sweet perfume. There is a blue baviana growing very close to the ground, one of our earliest spring flowers, also very sweetly scented. i8g Sept. CAPE WILD FLOWERS Just now the hill-sides at Simonstown, and all along the slopes of the Constantia hills, are tinted pink with the lovely pink watsonia, which also emits a sweet odour. The white gladiolus, which has now become quite common, and is so exquisitely pure and white, was accidentally discovered by Mr. MacIntyre on his farm in Caledon. One single white flower, growing among the pink and mauvecoloured ones. He thought it was a freak of nature, but carefully took up the bulb and transplanted it, taking great care of it; the result was that in a few years it had increased to such an extent that now almost every garden in the Cape Peninsula has these lovely graceful flowers growing in clusters. Then there are very many with aromatic-scented leaves ; all the wild geraniums on Table Mountain, and the quaint little “ Kommitje Tee-water” (little cup of tea), with its pink-and-white flower that looks as though it were made of china, and many others. All who love wild flowers should come to our Cape Colony in September and October. I should like them to see the wild crimson nemesias, which we used to get on our drive to the Berg river ; and the pink and creamy ones on the ground which slopes to the sea near Groote Poste ; also the crimson droseras (sundews), between Groote Poste and Berg river. In September the ground is literally carpeted with endless varieties of gazanias — local name, Gousbloom. All shades of yellow and orange, and a porcelain-looking white one with outer petals tinted with blue. These commonest of flowers are nevertheless very pretty. Then we have the endless varieties of mesembryanthemums, from the tiniest little ones creeping along the ground to the gorgeous scarlet and purples. These mesembryanthemums are VEGETABLES. BRAISED LETTUCE SepL found every where, even in the barren Karroo ; and later on in October and November there is a white variety from which the bees gather delicious honey. This variety grows at Berg river, and other districts near the sea.

Hilda's diary of a Cape housekeeper