Flora of the Leribe Plateau and Environs. 15 



excluding much which comprises the " Kalahari Eegion " of Thode, 

 agrees so far as to include Basutolaud. Marloth however notes that 

 " lu the eastern parts the country is mountainous, and the vegetation 

 consequently more varied." Bolus,* whose paper is the classic on South 

 African Phyto-Greography, states in the introduction to the " Kalahari 

 Region " : "It must at once be stated that this vast region is as yet so 

 imperfectly explored as to its physical divisions, its aspect, its climate, 

 and the systematic constituents of its vegetation, that it is impossible 

 at present to do more than offer a very general view of a country which 

 will need many years of study, and which will hereafter almo.-t certainly 

 require to be divided into several Eegioiis or, at least, to be subdivided 

 into Provinces." 



As now treated it is bounded on the west by the still less explored 

 Western Eegion, on the south by the Upper Eegion, on the south-east 

 and east by the mountains of the South-Eastern Coast Kegion, on the 

 north by the great Tropical Eegion, which is beyond the scope of our 

 inquiry. 



It thus includes : 



1. The higher eastern mountain country, forming parts of Cape 

 Colony, Natal, and Basutolaud, with an altitude higher than :i500 ( r 

 4000 ft. (This, in our view, will probably hereafter require, separa- 

 tion as a Eegion or Province.) 



2. Almost the whole of the Orange Eiver Colony, of the Transvaal, 

 and Bechuaiialaud. 



I quote the above in full, as Bolus was the first to realise the 

 mistake of including Basutoland and parts of the surrounding country 

 with the major portion of the Orange Free State, the Transvaal, and 

 Bechuanaland. He was however unable to follow up his view owing 

 to the lack of sufficient material. In the ' Flora Capeusis,' the standard 

 work on South African Systematic Botany, Basutoland is also included 

 in a Kalahari Eegion almost identical with that of Bolus 



It is a portion of the first part of Bolus' " Kalahari Eegion " that 

 is dealt with in this paper. 



OROGRAPHY. 



The Eastern Mountain Eegiou, as the writer has limited it for the 

 present, is a large tract of country lying between the 28th and 30th 

 degree of latitude, and at its widest limits extending from the 

 27th degree of longitude on the west to about midwav between the 









' f H. Bolus, " Sketch of the Floral Kegions of South Africa," < Sciej 



SlsriV^ 



South Africa,' 1905. . . 





>/ 



