250 Repokt 8. a. a. Advancement of Science. 



to Malmesbury and Stellenbosch, fioni tlie Paarl to the Sundays River 

 it clothes miles and miles of hilly country. It is the prevailing shrub 

 in the Little Roggeveld, the Little Karroo and the Long Kloof, and is 

 not uncommon even along the Zuurberg. Many writers have looked 

 upon it as the original occupier of the country, but its present supremacy 

 is chiefly due to the assistance it has received from man. Plough and 

 fire have destroyed the bulk of the other vegetation ; wind, animals, 

 people, carts, wagons and the railway have carried its seeds everywhere. 

 Old rhenoster fields, if left undisturbed for twenty or thirty years, 

 gradually return to their original vegetation, an association of nume- 

 rous cricoid or myrtle-leaved shrubs, chiefly species of Cliffortia and 

 A'arious composites (Jletalasia, Belhania, Ffermiia, Eriocephahis, &c.), 

 together with Proteacefe, particularl}'^ species of Protea and LeAicaden- 

 drcnt, but everywhere accompanied by others. 



II. The Macchia. 



Where the original vegetation of the country has not been destroyed 

 by the hand of man, or where ample time has been given for its recoveiy, 

 hills and plains of the South-West are covered with shrubs and bushes 

 6-10 ft. high. Here and there larger shrubs or even small trees appear, 

 or, where the ground is rocky or the soil shallow, the shrubs are dwarfed. 

 That is the macchia of the Cape. There is even within the Cape Pro- 

 vince a considerable variation of the societies of plants which take part 

 in this formation. In one district Proteacese (species of Frotea, Leii- 

 cadendron, Leucosperrmim, Kivenia, etc.) may exclude almost all others. 

 In another locality Ericaceae, e.g. Phi/ippia Chamissoiiis and some tall 

 species of heath, e.g. Erica baccana, E. exsuryens, E. mammosa, may 

 pi'eponderate, or Olea verrucosa, Dodoiuca,, Metalasia, Exiclea and Royena 

 may be dominant, while in others not one of the Cape types and their 

 allies may be present. Some writers have referred to the South-West as 

 the area of the sclerophyllous shrubs (Hartlaubstrsieuchev according to 

 Schimper's terminology), as if both x-egions coincided. That is, how- 

 ever, not the case, for the sclerophyllous vegetation oversteps the 

 boundaries of the Cape Province considerably, particularly in the 

 East. 



III. The Heatfi of the Hills. 



This formation may be, according to locality, either natural or 

 artificial, having been derived in the latter instance mainly from a 

 macchia ruined by axe and fire. It is one of the richest formations 

 of the Cape Province, containing numerous heaths and other cricoid 

 or myrtle-leaved shrublets, herbaceous perennials, tuberous-rooted 

 dicotyledons and very many show}' monocotyledons. The number of 

 such monocotyledons within this formation on the Cape Peninsula 

 alone is 170, of which 70 belong to Iridacese, 40 to Orchidacejv and 

 45 to Liliaceac. 



