Notes on Distribution of Species in Transkei 21 



natives state that "Mzane" (T. lanceolate) does not grow in 

 any forest or these mountains. The writer however found a 

 single seedling about 2 feet high in the Ntshontsho Forest 

 (Trinity or Cancels sub-reserve). No parent tree was to be 

 seen. Sneezewood {Ptaeroxylon utile) is another tree whose 

 range is uncertain. It is abundant in many coast forests. If forms 

 magnificent boles in mountain forests. It grows, at about 2,500 

 feet, as scrub on the krantzes above the Umtata Falls in shal- 

 low soil and an exposed position. It is to be found in most of the 

 Western Tsolo mountain forests, but entirely disappears on these 

 same mountains in the Bazeya patrol across the boundary of the 

 Umtata District. 



Both white ironwood and sneezewood have shown them- 

 selves able to thrive wherever forest exists, so that climate can 

 be eliminated as a deciding factor as to where they shall or shall 

 not be. 



They show equal disregard for the origin of the soil in which 

 they grow. Table Mountain Sandstone, Ecca, Beaufort, Mol- 

 teno beds of the Stormberg series and dolerite all provide for 

 them. Their distribution is uninfluenced by geological factors. 



In the Mount Frere district near the fence that divides it from 

 Matatiele there are five small patches of destroyed forest, none 

 more than three acres in extent. The natives say that a few 

 years before rinderpest these woods were like those on the 

 Nungi Hills, which lie two miles distant, i.e. mountain high forest 

 of fair quality. Then the people began to cut and to-day the 

 f!oor is grass and weed-grown. The only present evidence that 

 these were once forest is an occasional large stump. There are 

 a few pollarded cussonias. Otherwise sparse coppice and 

 shrubs are scattered among the grass and weeds. Even the old 

 tree stumps have been hacked away for firewood. 



These erstwhile forests lie at an elevation of about 4,000 feet 

 mainly on the left banks of small water-courses running from 

 west to east, and face the south. The soil lies over Beaufort 

 scuidstones, and is a sandy clay of varying depth. Towards the 

 bottom of the second forest there is an area of almost pure 

 sneezewood coppice, where, within twenty years the Matatiele 

 farmers split poles from wellgrown sneezewoods with a girth 



