Crossing A Hundred Yards Of This,
We Came Upon Another Broad Band Of The Same Flower, But Blue,
And This
Color is varied from the lightest tint to dark blue, and even purple.
I had before observed the same flower
Possessing different colors in different
parts of the country, and once a great number of liver-colored flowers,
which elsewhere were yellow. Even the color of the birds changed
with the district we passed through; but never before did I see
such a marked change as from yellow to blue, repeated again and again
on the same plain. Another beautiful plant attracted my attention
so strongly on these plains that I dismounted to examine it.
To my great delight I found it to be an old home acquaintance,
a species of Drosera, closely resembling our own sundew (`Drosera Anglia').
The flower-stalk never attains a height of more than two or three inches,
and the leaves are covered with reddish hairs, each of which
has a drop of clammy fluid at its tip, making the whole appear
as if spangled over with small diamonds. I noticed it first in the morning,
and imagined the appearance was caused by the sun shining on drops of dew;
but, as it continued to maintain its brilliancy during the heat of the day,
I proceeded to investigate the cause of its beauty, and found
that the points of the hairs exuded pure liquid, in, apparently,
capsules of clear, glutinous matter. They were thus like dewdrops
preserved from evaporation.
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