EFFECTS OF DROUGHTS ON DISTRIHUTION OF PLANTS. ^Sj 



lold, succumbed, there being a whole row of such trees on the 

 lower slopes of the Devil's Peak above Upper Mill Street. 



Of the indigenous trees only the silver tree ( Leitcadciidron 

 arycntcum) became conspicuous in this way, (juite a number 

 having died on the slopes of the Lion's Head and the Devil's 

 Peak. 



The summer was an exceptionally dry one, and the inhabit- 

 ants of the Cape Peninsula will remember it for a good many 

 years, for hardly within the memor\' of man had there been 

 such a long spell of rainless weather. 



Royal Observatory, Summer, 1914/15.* 



Total 

 Dec. Jan. Feb. March. 4 months. 



0.51 — — 1.82 2.33 



Dec. Dec. March. Three months, 



12 Dec- 

 12-24 -24-31 1-15 15 March. 



0.13 — — 0.13 



From this table it will be seen that December, 1914, brought 

 only 0.51 inches, and that during the period 25th December to 

 15th March, 191 5 — that means for nearly three months — there 

 was no rain at all. The total for 3^ months (December, 

 January, Februar};, half March) was consequently only 0.51, 

 while the average for the three months December-February is 

 2.27 inches, hence the season just passed brought only 22.5 per 

 cent, of the mean. 



As the summer advanced, the effects of the drought on the 

 vegetation of the hills and slopes became more and more ap- 

 parent, and at the beginning of March most of the purely her- 

 baceous vegetation had disappeared. It will be convenient to 

 group the observations und.er two headings according to altitude. 



A. Western Slopes of Table Mountain (Camps Bay side) 



BETWEEN the PiPE TRACK A.ND TPIE BASE OF THE CLIFFS. 



Altitude about 800 to 1,500 feet. 



These slopes were formerly entirely occupied by a typical 

 Cape Macchia, but, owing to the many veld fires which have 

 swept over this area from time to time during the last century 

 and even more recently, few arborescent elements of the original 

 macchia have survived outside of the valleys cut by the streamlets 

 which descend from the ravines of the mountain. All of these 

 belong to Proteaceae, viz., Lencadendron argenteum, the silver 

 tree, and Lciicospermum conocarpum, the kreupelhout, the 

 former in a few specimens only, the latter scattered about or 



*From data kindly supplied by Mr. S. S. Hough, H.M. Astronomer Royal 

 at the Cape. 



