CHAPTER XXVII 



SCRUB 



Such expressions as u Xerophytic hard-leaf flora/' maqut, 

 gartgue, thorn wood, and the like are not generally known 

 in this country, in the sense in which they are used by 

 Schimper and others. Nor is there any really good 

 popular word to describe this sort of vegetation, so that 

 we have been reduced to lt scrub," which will perhaps 

 give the idea of a scattered, shrubby, very often thorny, 

 and always almost inedible bush, and which is very 

 common in dry, warm and temperate countries.* 



Such a vegetation as this is typical of many Mediter- 

 ranean lands, of many parts of South Africa, especi- 

 ally near Cape Town, of the coast hills of Chile near 

 Valparaiso, and is apparently (from description) exceed- 

 ingly common both in Australia and California. 



It is perhaps the most puzzling of all. If one begins 

 to note down the various types of it to be found, say in 

 Spain, or in Corsica, the number becomes appalling, 

 and one very soon begins to doubt whether it is really a 

 natural vegetation, or only a series of transitional types 

 which represent stages in the formation of some kind of 

 wood or forest. 



Near deserts, as in North Africa, one finds thorny 

 acacia thickets which represent one type of scrub speci- 

 ally adapted to invade and colonise deserts. 



Where there is a good rainfall, as towards the north 



* Schimper's chief character is the hard, rather dry leaf. But gummy and 

 woolly leaves are very common. Thorns and bulbous plants are also 

 abundant. 1 



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