"All are alike succulent and full of salt, giving out a crisp, crackling sound as you walk over them. All have the same strange way of growing, each plant a little patch by itself, just as the tufts of wool grow on the Hottentots' heads; and the flowers of nearly all are of the portulacca type, some large, some small, some growing singly, others in clusters. They are of different colors,—white, yellow, orange, red, pink, lilac, etc. They are very delicate and fragile flowers; and, pretty as they are, it is useless to attempt carrying them home, for they close up and fade as soon as they are gathered.
"The spekboom, which is a good-sized shrub, sometimes attaining the height of fifteen or twenty feet, grows plentifully a little way up the mountains; and in very protracted droughts, when the karroo and other bush of the plains begin at last to fail, it is our great resource for the ostriches, which then ascend for the purpose of feeding upon it; and though they do not care for it as they do for their usual kinds of food, it is good and nourishing for them. It has a large, soft stem, very thick, round, succulent leaves, and its clusters of star-shaped, waxlike flowers are white, sometimes slightly tinged with pink.
"Thorny plants abound, especially on the mountains, where indeed almost every bush which is not soft and succulent is armed with strong, sharp, often cruelly hooked spikes. On foot you are perpetually assailed by the great strong hooks of the wild asparagus, a troublesome enemy, whose long straggling branches trailing over the ground are most destructive to the skirts of dresses; while boots have deadly foes, not only in the shape of rough ground and hard, sharp-pointed stones, but also in that of numerous prickly and scratchy kinds of small bush.
"Among our troublesome plants, one of the worst and most plentiful is the prickly pear. It spreads with astonishing rapidity, and is so tenacious of life that a leaf, or even a small portion of a leaf, if thrown on the ground, strikes out roots almost immediately, and becomes the parent of a fast-growing plant.
"Sometimes ostriches help themselves to prickly pears, acquire a morbid taste for them, and go on indulging in them, reckless of the long stiff spikes on the leaves, with which their poor heads and necks soon become so covered as to look like pincushions stuck full of pins, and of the still more cruel, almost invisible fruit thorns which at last line the interior of their throats, besides so injuring their eyes that they become perfectly blind, and are unable to feed themselves."
Speaking of the prickly pear still further, the author acknowledges that it is not without its good qualities: "Its juicy fruit, though rather deficient in flavor, is delightfully cool and refreshing in the dry heat of summer, and a kind of treacle, by no means to be despised, is made from it.
"Great caution is needed in peeling the prickly pear, the proper way being to impale the fruit on a fork or stick while you cut it open and remove the skin. On no account must the latter be touched with the hands, or direful consequences will ensue.
"To the inexperienced eye the prickly pear looks innocent enough, with its smooth, shiny skin, suggestive only of a juicy interior, and telling no tales of lurking mischief; yet each of these soft-looking tufts, with which at regular intervals it is dotted, is a quiver filled with terrible, tiny, hairlike thorns, or rather stings, and woe betide the fingers of the unwary, who with no kind friend at hand to warn him, plucks the treacherous fruit.
"In dry weather at the Cape these spiteful little stings do not even wait for the newly arrived victim; but fly about, light as thistle down, ready to settle on any one who has not learned by experience to give the prickly-pear bushes a wide berth.
"The leaves of the prickly pear are good for ostriches and cattle, though the work of burning off the thorns and cutting the leaves in pieces is so tedious that it is only resorted to when other food becomes scarce. One kind, the 'bald-leaf,' has no thorns. It is comparatively rare, and farmers plant and cultivate it as carefully as they exterminate its troublesome relative."