Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 4.djvu/138

 102 SOUTH AND EAST AFRICA. the imraen83 variety of forms here concentrated, the endemic genera altogether peculiar to the floral domain of the Cape number very nearly four hundred and fifty. The botanical region which begins with the plains of Clanwilliam and Olifant on the Atlantic seaboard, and which embraces the extreme south-west continental coast ranges, constitutes an area of a very limited extent, distinguished, like the Mediterranean region, by its thickets of shrubs and lesser growths. Nearly everywhere it presents numerous woody plants from four to eight feet high, with a dull green or bluish foliage. These are the so-called bosckj'es or bonchjesvelds of the Dutch settlers, the bush ioiintnj of the English, inhabited chiefly by scattered wild tribes thence known as Bushmen. Although during the early period of colonisation these thick-set tracts presented great obstacles to free intercommuni- cation, the immigrants always found it possible to clear the route for their long teams of oxen, whereas they would have been iinable to traverse true forests except on foot or on horseback. Large forest vegetation is rare in the Cape region, where it is confined chiefly to the southern slopes of highlands which skirt the seaboard between Mossel and St. Francis Bays. Most indigenous trees seek shelter' in the gorges, and even here rarely exceed twenty- eight or thirty feet in height. Sub-tropical forms are here still represented on the shores of the Southern Ocean by a dwarf date, some cycadeuj and aloes. On the Cedar Mountains, in the south-western part of the country, there formerly flourished some species of so-called " cedars " with a girth of over thirty feet at the base.* One of the most characteristic fonns in the Cape zone is the silver tree {Leucadendronargeiitoum), which owes its name to the silvery metallic lustre of its stem, boughs, and foliage. These plants, with their finely chased ramifying branches, when glittering in the bright sunshine, look almost like the work of some skilful silversmith, like those jewelled trees placed by the great Moghuls in their imperial gardens. The heaths, of which over four hundred species a»*e found in the South African bush, predominate amongst the woody plants. With the rhenoster, or rhino- ceros-wood {EhjtropappuH rhhwcerotis), a plant from one to two feet high and in appearance somewhat resembling the heather, they form the most characteristic feature in the local flora. During the flowering season the mountains clothed with heath often present, from base to summit, one uniform mass of pink bloom. Plants of the iris, geranium, and pelargonium groups are also very common in the Cape region ; whereas the rubiacea), an order represented in other parts of the world by such a large numbsi* of species, constitute in Austral Africa less than a hundredth part of the indigenous flora. The beds of the rivers and watercourses are often choked with reeds and flags (Acorus pahnites or prionhim), plants with deep roots and close-packed stems, whose tufted terminal foliage spreads out on the surface so as completely to conceal the water, even to travellers fording the stream. Thus sheltered from the solar rays, ., * Alexander, An Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa.