86 VEGETATION OF SOUTHERN NAMIB. 



can subsist. The colonists call it candlebush* or Bushman's 

 candle, for even v/hen fresh from the ground it will burn like a 

 torch, forming a welcome fuel for the traveller in the desert, where 

 even the Sal sol a may be absent. 



Some special conditions are brought about by the courses of 

 the few rivers, which, descending from the high plateaus to the 

 East of the Namib, conduct the rainwater to the coast, never as 

 actual rivers, but merely as underground soakage, which finally 

 produces the few springs and wells of fresh water that exist near 

 the coast, e.g., at Elizabeth Bay, Anichab. Hottentots Bay and 

 a few other places. In these so-called river beds a few camel-thorn 

 trees come within the limits of the Namib, several grasses thrive 

 occasionally even in profusion, and one of the most curious plants 

 of the Namib, the Naras, finds a few favourable localities for thriv- 

 ing and ripening its fruits, which form a favourite food of the 

 roaming Hottentots and Bushmen. The Naras, Acanthosicyos 

 horrida, a shrubby, but leafless, member of the order Cucurbitaceae, 

 was until recently unknown south of Walfish Bay, where it 

 occupies the sand dunes near the old bed of the Kuisib River. 

 Lately, however, it has been discovered at several other spots of 

 the Namib, viz. : near Anichab,t about 24 miles North of Angra 

 Pequena, near Harris, { about 20 miles to the North-East of it, 

 in the dunes of the Tiras plains, about 20 miles North of the Tiger 

 Mountain, situated near the station Garub, and, according to 

 verbal information from Mr. G. Klinghardt. still further South 

 near a well, called Amitsib, about 60 miles to the South-East of 

 Angra Pequena, midway between the coast and the farm Witputs. 

 In all these localities the existence of the plant indicates under- 

 ground moisture, which descends in deep channels from the high- 

 lands of the interior and rises sufficiently in the sand to be reached 

 by the unusually long roots of this plant, which have been traced 

 to 10 meters and more. 



The other specially remarkable plant of the Northern Namib, 

 which occurs there in close proximity to the Naras, viz. : the Wel- 

 witschia, has not been found South of the Kuisib district as yet 

 although I do not think it unlikely that it may occur in some 

 other parts of the Namib. 



List of species mentioned in this paper, being the more common and representative 

 plants of the region. 

 Graminace^e. Aizoace.e. 



Ammophila arenaria Link. Mesembnanthemum einereum, Mar- 



Lragrostis Sptnosa, inn. ]c>th 



LiLiACE^. ^j_ fimbriatum, Sonder 



Aloe dichotoma, L.f. j^j Mavlothii, Pax. 



Chenopodiace^. M. moniUfortne, Haw. 



Bassia diffusa [CJienolea], Thunb. AI. opticuni, Marloth. 



Salicomia natalensis, Bunge M. rhopalophyllum, Schlechter et 



Salsola Zeyheri \Moq.^, B. et H. Diels. 



* Three species ot Sarcocaulon Dear this name, but only one ot these occurs 

 here, the others being found further south and west. 



■j- Schultze : " Aus Namaland und Kalahari," Jena, 1908. 



t Range: "Reisestudien in Gross-Namaland." Zeitschr. Ges. liir Erdkunde, 

 Berlin, 1908, p. 677. 



