386 GEOGRAPHICAL BOTANY. 



contrast between Albany and the west of the colony. In 

 explaining the latter, we must bear in mind the narrow 

 district throughout which the Cape plants are distributed, 

 the tropical forms appear to indicate climatic influences 

 which do not exist ; for Albany is, if anything, unusually 

 dry in comparison with the other regions of the colony, 

 except the district of the Gareep. Rain, says Bunbury 

 (p. 247), is rare and uncertain ; when precipitations do 

 occur, it is only the case during south or south-east sea 

 winds. The climate is indeed considered very healthy, 

 yet it is subjected to great and sudden changes of tem- 

 perature, with stormy and dry winds from the west and 

 north. Hence Albany does not exhibit any trace of that 

 periodical rainy season, which at Port Natal, as the most 

 southern point (30 S. lat.) of the regular tropical seasons, 

 gives rise to the trade- wind character of the flora, and yet, 

 in so dry a climate, the mode of formation of the plants 

 is more similar to that of the trade-wind flora, than at the 

 Cape, where in the winter regular precipitations occur 

 almost as in the south of Europe. We must, therefore, 

 in Albany, admit the occurrence of one of those botanico- 

 geographical facts, where even a tropical constituent of 

 the vegetation appears to be dependent not only upon 

 climatic conditions, but historical or geological events. 



According to Krauss, Natal is well watered by nume- 

 rous rivers, which arise in the coast-chain Quathlamba ; 

 these mountains are nearly 10,000' high, and run through 

 the coast-country of the new colony in every direction. 

 The vegetation springs up in September, and during the 

 months of October, November, and December, corre- 

 sponding with the atmospheric precipitations, attains the 

 greatest splendour. During this moist season, the ther- 

 mometer varies between 19 and 31 c. Vegetable life 

 is suddenly arrested as early as January, the grass plains 

 appearing dark yellow, and the forests flowerless and 

 uniformly green. Rain seldom falls from January to 

 March ; the air during this period is hot and oppressive, 

 and the temperature between 26 and 32 5 c. The 



