lendid oak avenue just now in all the
vivid freshness of its young spring leaves. The gardens are
beautifully kept, and are valuable as affording a sort of
experimental nursery in which new plants and trees can be
brought up on trial and their adaptability to the soil and
climate ascertained. For instance, the first thing that caught
my eye was the gigantic trunk of an Australian blue-gum tree,
which had attained to a girth and height not often seen in its
own land. The flora of the Cape Colony is exceptionally varied
and beautiful, but one peculiarity incidentally alluded to by
my charming guide struck me as very noticeable. It is that
in this dry climate and porous soil all the efforts of
uncultivated nature are devoted to the _stems_ of the
vegetation: on their sap-retaining power depends the life of
the plant, so blossom and leaf, though exquisitely indicated,
are fragile and incomplete compared to the solidity and
bulbous appearance of the stalk. Everything is sacrificed to
the practical principle of keeping life together, and it is
not until these stout-stemmed plants are cultivated and
duly sheltered and watered, and can grow, as it were, with
confidence, that they are able to do justice to the inherent
beauty of penciled petal and veined leaf. Then the stem
contracts to ordinary dimensions, and leaf and blossom expand
into things which may well be a joy to the botanist's eye.
A thousand times during that shady saunter did I envy my
companions their scientific acquaintance with the beautiful
green things of earth, and that intimate knowledge of a
subject which enhances one's appreciation of its charms as
much as bringing a lamp into a darkened picture-gallery. There
are the treasures of form and color, but from ignorant eyes
more than half their charms and wonders are held back.

A few steps beyond the garden stand the library and natural
history museum. The former is truly a credit to the Colony.
Spacious, handsome, rich in literary treasures, It would
bear comparison with similar institutions in far older and
wealthier places. But I have often noticed in colonies how
much importance is attached to the possession of a good public
library, and how fond, as a rule, colonists are of books. In
a new settlement other shops may be ill supplied, but there
is alwa