450 J. W. BEWS. 



found to be from the seedlings of the dominant surrounding 

 trees. Though these may produce abundance of seed, there 

 are numerous insect-pests which, during the stationary climax 

 period, often become so abundant that all the seeds of the 

 dominant species are attacked and none of them are able 

 to germinate. Some of the sub-dominant species may show 

 signs of graduallj^ supplanting the dominant ones, owing to 

 the influence of such animal agencies, and it is particularly 

 interesting to find that the animal influence can thus prove 

 more potent than the climatic in leading to changes in the 

 climax phase. In other words, the climax type of vegetation 

 may change without any change in the climate. 



All this applies to South African forest as a whole, but 

 very little (if any) of the coast-belt forest has really reached 

 such a climax stage. On the whole it is rather mixed in 

 composition and generally low, few of the trees being more 

 than 60 feet high. 



The tallest trees, named roughly in the order of their 

 importance, are : Protorhus longifolia, Albizzia fasti- 

 giata, Rhus lasvigata, Macaranga capensis (inmoister 

 situations), Milletia caffra, Trichilia emetica, Cussonia 

 umbellifera, Calodendron capense, Toddalia lanceo- 

 lata, Celtis kraussiana, Harpephyllum caffrum, 

 Cryptocarya latifolia, Pygeum africanum, Cyclo- 

 stemon argutus, Ekebergia meyeri, Myrsine mela- 

 nophleos, Strychnos gerrardi, S. atherstonei, S. 

 henningsii, Cassipourea verticillata, Elfeodendron 

 croceum, Erythrina caffra, Ptaeroxylon utile, and 

 rarely the Yellow-wood, Podocarpus elongata, but iu all 

 the moister situations the hygrophilous type already described 

 may retain dominance, and the component species, Eugenia 

 cordata, Macaranga capensis, Rauwolfia natalensis, 

 Voacanga dregei, Ficus capensis, F. natalensis, 

 grow to a very large size. The more useful timbers like 

 the Yellow-wood may, as Fourcade suggests, at one time 

 have been more abundant. Specimens of it are still to be 

 seen in the Albert Pai-k, Durban, near the sea. 



