THE PLANT ECOLOGY OF THE COAST BELT OF NATAL. 447 



12. Coast Forest. 

 (PL XXVI, figs. 1 and 2.) 



This represents the chief climax stage in the plant succes- 

 sion on the coast belt. In places, where thorn scrub is 

 dominant, the climate is too hot and dry to permit of forest 

 development, and in other places, though forest species of 

 trees are dominant, they are unable to develop into true high 

 forest, but remain dwarfed so as to form scrub like that 

 already described. Such scrub forest is, of course, also 

 climax, but it is probable that this state of aifairs has, to a 

 large extent, been caused by the extensive destruction of 

 forest and scrub from all the surrounding country. Fourcade, 

 in his ' Report on the Natal Forests,' published as a govern- 

 ment blue book nearly thirty years ago, says, " The coast 

 forest is still extensive, but much of it has been cleared for 

 planting. Nearly the whole of the cultivated land in the 

 coast districts consists of cleared bush ground. This exten- 

 sive denudation is said by old settlers to have somewhat 

 altered the climate, causing a greater aridity and more 

 irregularity in the weather. Yellow-wood and wagon-wood 

 were formerly cut in many of the coast forests, but few good 

 timber trees are now left." That was written at a time when 

 the sugar industr}" was only about one-sixth as extensive as 

 it is now. (In 1894, 19,369 tons of sugar were produced, 

 while in 1916 the amount was 114,500 tons, and the acreage 

 under cane had increased from 26,000 acres in 1892 to 163,000 

 acres in 1916. This year, 1919, the estimated yield is 160,000 

 tons.) Over practically the whole coast belt from Port Shep- 

 stone to Zululand, within easy reach of the railway, one sees 

 nothing but sugar cane, except in occasional patches. The 

 village commonages have often been left untouched, and 

 much of the native locations have not been planted with cane, 

 but these have usually been otherwise interfered with. 



One of the best examples of coast forest is at the same time 

 the most accessible of all — the " Stella Bush " on the Durban 

 Berea. In Bulwer Park fine original forest trees have been 



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