The earliest record of South African flora was made by Justus Heurnius, a Dutch missionary who collected and recorded plants in 1624 while the ship he was sailing on from Batavia to Holland took on fresh water in Cape Town.

By 1700, almost 1000 Cape plants had been recorded. One of the governors of the Cape, Ryk Tulbagh, a lover of wild flowers, was responsible for sending plants, bulbs and seeds from the Cape to Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanical expert, who devised the system by which all living things are named.

In 1772 Sir Joseph Banks, the acting director of Kew, before it became a public garden, sent Francis Masson to collect plants from South Africa. Masson sailed with Captain Cook to Cape Town, where he collected more than 400 species of plants, including seventy-nine different species of Proteas and fifty species of Cape Pelargoniums. It was Masson’s collections of Cape flora that gave Kew its reputation as a leading botanical institution.

South African plants also found their way to Australia aboard ships on their way to the ‘new colony’. These include Nerine, Gazanias, Ericas and Clivias, as well as weeds such as Oxalis and Kikuyu.

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2. Let us revise the USES (FUNCTIONS) OF THE COMMA.

You would have noticed that the writer has made use of a number of commas. See how:

a) Commas are used to separate several successive nouns; e.g. Terriers, Labradors, Alsatians and Poodles are all types of dogs.

Quote a sentence from the passage which illustrates this use. [2]

Write your own example to illustrate this use.[1]

Can you write your own sentence to illustrate this function of the comma? [1]

d) Commas also separate successive actions; e.g. The watch-dog ran to the fence, surveyed the road, saw nobody and left.

Can you write your own sentence to illustrate this function of the comma? [1]

e) Commas are used to introduce direct speech (someone’s direct words). Look at the following examples:

Did you notice the different positions of the comma in each of these three sentences?

The comma after ‘me’ indicates that his direct words continue.

f) Commas separate adverbs and adverbial phrases; e.g. Nevertheless,he bought the dog. However, I shall keep an eye on him.

He did, in fact, become a loving owner.

We were, on the contrary, very pleased with his decision.

g) Commas separate words and phrases in apposition; e.g. The dog was returned to his owner, Mr Blake, at number 103 Durban Road.

Find an example from the passage that illustrates this. [2]

h) Commas separate participial phrases; e.g. Having eaten its food, the puppy went to sleep.

Does a sentence from the passage illustrate this use? [1]

i) Commas can also indicate parenthesis. This means commas can take the place of brackets; e.g. Labradors, golden as well as black, love children and water.

Quote an example from the passage to illustrate this function. [2]

j) Commas indicate the vocative (it separates the name of the person being spoken to from the words being said); e.g. ‘Thembi, get your dog to a vet as soon as possible.’

k) A comma is used to separate words such as ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, ‘Please’ etc. e.g. ‘Yes, that will help, thank you.’

A lot to take in? Never mind, once you have understood, learnt and practised and used these, you will never forget them! The standard of your writing will also improve with accurate punctuation.

3. DEGREES OF COMPARISON

‘‘The earliest record of South African flora…’

The word earliest is an example of a degree of comparison.

Adjectives and adverbs have three degrees of comparison:

What to remember:

The comparative and superlative are formed as follows:

Exercises:

1. What is the difference between the following?

Add –er or more to each of the words below and use it in a sentence to describe the difference between the pairs.

Example: What is the difference between a twig and a branch.

A twig is smaller than a branch.

2. Look at the picture and then complete the sentence using a degree of comparison.

The Great White and the Zambezi shark are both feared, but the Great White is more feared than the Zambezi.

2.1 Our dog and cat eat very quickly, but our dog eats __________

2.2 The lion, cheetah and leopard all run fast, but the ___________

2.3 Lavender and cacti require little water, but cacti require _________________

2.4 All animals have good camouflage, but the chameleon has the __________

(4)

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