THE PLANT ECOLOGY OF DEAKENSBERG RANGE. 5G3 



in the rock crevices and ledges, and fonr types are distin- 

 guished, according to the degree o£ shelter, shade, and 

 moisture. The hydrophile type of chomophyte connects 

 through alpine bogs with the larger vleis. 



On the mountain-top a peculiar type of soil is formed — 

 the mountain-top detritus — which accumulates in tlie depres- 

 sions while portions remain bare. The result is that the 

 vegetation is of a somewhat mixed type, having features in 

 common with the cliff vegetation and also with fynbosch, 

 but being on the whole of an intensely xerophytic character, 

 since it is exposed to all the adverse factors of the environ- 

 ment. 



The fynbosch, or Maquis, which occupies the steep and very 

 unstable slopes below the cliffs and also the upper ravines, 

 is an interesting sclerophyllons type transitional to both bush 

 and veld. 



Such a type is much more extensively developed in the 

 south-western region of Cape Colony, where the summers are 

 dry, and there it is not confined to high altitudes as in Natal, 

 Avhere the hot season is also the rainy season. 



From the fynbosch we get a double succession, one through 

 rocky scrub with Greyia sutherlandi dominant, and 

 ordinary scrub with Leucosidea sericea dominant, to 

 the mountain type of bush, which contrasts somewhat sharply 

 with Midland bush in its general ecological characters, though 

 not in its floristic composition, and the other through bare 

 rocky fellfield to the mountain or tussock veld. 



In the veld itself a careful study of the numerous associated 

 plants throws a considerable amount of light on the succes- 

 sion. A certain class of these are found to be transitional to 

 fynbosch and scrub, and another class (those occupying moist 

 spots in the veld) to vleis. There remains a third class of 

 true associated plants, which grow more closely intermingled 

 with the grasses though usually occupying a different sub- 

 stratum of soil. The double succession referred to should be 

 emphasised, since it illustrates Schimper's basic conception of 

 the distinction between a forest and a grassland climatic 



