Looks like granules of slow release fertilizer. There's a formulation you can get that has the granules stuck together in lumps to feed established plants. You poke a hole in the compost round a plant growing in a pot and push in a lump that looks like that. A few of the granules have come off and are sitting around nearby.

Looks more like the seed from an arum or arisaema to me

I would go along with Moon Grower on this one. Have you any Arums or Arisaemas nearby?

they look like eggs of certain types of insects!!

Thank you so much for your responses - I asked for a friend and I will pass on your suggestions. I know he will really appreciate them. Thanks again

They don't look anything like insect egg, or those fertiliser things (note the scientific name lol)! And... insect eggs would be far smaller and buried... these are fruiting berries - just squeeze one open and you will find the little seed inside each berry.

I think its Osmicote fertiliser. You can buy the granules in a block like this Mg.

If it helps - when you cut them open - they have a brittle outer pithy skin and inside they are just a mass of white fibrous, almost chalky matter. They don't really look like eggs. Could they be fungal ?

Osmicote. We have used it and sell it. It has a permeable outer skin that allows the fertiliser inside to move out by osmosis... When dry and fresh it is very hard but once wet and in the compost for any period of time the inside becomes sodden and starts dissolving and slowly leaches out into the compost so feeding the plant.

A few years ago some plants we had bought in had the loose form of this mixed through the compost. It was in the wet state so that when you crushed it between thumb and forefinger it burst, squirting the liquefied contents out. A bullish customer at the top her voice so all could hear wanted to make a scene and let all within earshot know that we were selling plants with Vine Weevils in the compost. She almost dragged me to these Euphorbia wulfenii plants and said "There! what are they then?". I knew what she was referring to and said what? "There" she pointed and picked up a couple of the "eggs" as she now referred to them. I politely told her what they were and she looked at me as if I was either lying or stupid. "Look, if you squeeze them they burst". Firstly (I said), Vine Weevil eggs are minute, you can hardly see them and proceeded to explain exactly what they were in some detail. I took the lady over to where we had some for sale and went through it again in detail until obviously having heard enough or possibly with some inability to believe that I was telling her the truth she stomped off without a thank you or anything for my increasing her knowledge! Goodbye I said under my breath.....

Thanks Fractal, I was sure it was Osmocote or similar. :-)

Just added a short story of something that happened a few years back to me :-)

I think they look a bit like slug or snail eggs, but they're whitish or translucent. I've seen vine weevil grubs (haven't we all? :-( ) but not the eggs.

Fractal - I have just checked images of Osmocote fertiliser and I think you may be right. Thanks

Unlikely to be snail or slug eggs (which are white or creamy) especially in the dry compost of Aloe variegata though I admit they do have a look of them. :-)

If Osmicot, shouldn't it be mixed throughout the compost rather than being heaped up asgainst the plant. Won't the concentration of fertiliser damage the plant?

I agree, I don't like these types glued together like this. It should spread around. These blocks that are sold like this I suspect are produced for "convenience". I have also wondered about the concentration of nutrients in one are too.

Here is an image of said blocks (Called osmocote plus).

http://www.tindaraorchids.com/images/supplies/osmocote_lrg.jpg

The other strange thing is that they should suddenly have appeared on the surface of the soil - unless my friend hadn't noticed them before - but that seems unlikely. Thanks again for your interest.

Probably just exposed it when watering too hard in one spot.