82 VEGETATION OF SOUTHERN NAMIB. 



the character and the colour of the landscape. (Generally the 

 plants are isolated by wide gaps between them, ten, twenty or 

 more square yards being without a single specimen. This is 

 ])articularly the case on the granite, gneiss and quartzite, especially 

 on the windward slope of the hills. On the other hand, the lime- 

 stone hills offer more favourable conditions to the plants, for, 

 being traversed by numerous deep cracks and fissures, they allow 

 sufficient moisture to rise for sustaining the life of deeper-rooted 

 plants. The m.ost conspicuous plant is a tree aloe, the well-known 

 Kokerboom of Namaqualand, Aloe dichotoma. Nowhere does it 

 appear in the immediate neighbourhood of the coast, but at the 

 Dreizackberg, which is nearly opposite Possession Island, it comes 

 M'ithin seven miles of the sea. Often occurring as a lonely and 

 solitary tree, it not rarely forms groups or little groves, which 

 adorn the hills, looking especially handsome in winter, when 

 they bear large racemes of bright yellow flowers. The tree is a 

 conspicuous feature of Great as well as of Little Namaqualand, 

 and in the interior, where the rainfall is less scanty and the wind 

 much less destructive and exhaustive than near the coast, it 

 reaches considerable dimensions, being sometimes three feet or 

 more in diameter at the base, and possessing a crown 40-50 feet 

 wide. Aloe dichotoma and Euphorbia Dinteri may be looked 

 upon as the most characteristic plants of Namaqualand. hut the 

 latter does not go into the Namib, nor far into Little Namaqualand, 

 being evidently confined to the region of the summer rains and the 

 warmer tracts of the country. I have not seen any other species 

 of aloe or its allied genera in the Namib, but further inland, e.g., 

 on the highlands of Kubub or along the Fish River, several others 

 occur, although thej^ are only small and acaulescent species. 



Le s conspicuous when seen from a distance, but iar more 

 numerous than Aloe dichotoma, are several species of Euphorbia, 

 which often dominate entire districts. In the coast belt one 

 species only is common, viz. : E. brachiafa, a dichotomously branched 

 leafless, rigid, shrublet one to two feet high. A little further 

 inland,, from the Dreizackberg eastwards, as far as Garub at the 

 eastern edge of the Namib. a larger species, viz. : E. gummifera, 

 3-6 feet h:gh, forms compact circular bushes, branched from the 

 g ound, the greyish twigs possessing a nauseous scent and a more 

 than usuall}/ ample supply of milk juice. For miles the landscape 

 is of en dominated by this species, especially on the hills of 

 limestone, which abound in this region. Here and there, e.g., 

 near Tschaukaib, another species takes the place of the former 

 or grows intermingled with it, viz. : E. lignosa, also a compact, 

 but smaller shrub, with very woody, pointed branches, greyish 

 like the former. E. cervicornis, the olifants-melkbos of Little 

 Namaqualand, occurs occasionally. Two smaller species are 

 also fairly common. One, E. namiboisis, has a short club-shaped 

 stem, bearing a few short and stout branches. It is occasionally 

 4-8 inches high, but often the stem hardly protrudes from the 

 ground. The other species is /:. stapcliiformis. which, as the 

 name indicates, j^ossesses short succulent stems, that hardly rise 

 above the ground. 



