July 29, 1909] 



NATURE 



I2Q 



Table I. — Keszvick Circle (Lat. 54° 36'). 



Azimuth Dec!. 



Alignment Aliitude E. ofN. N. Object 



Circle to Gap (Saddleback- 1 ■ '3 ^ ' , • '/ Arcturus 



Centre line of chapel to 1 ,0 -8t 7 6^ P'eiades 



Great Mell Fell / ' ■♦" - '« -^"^ - ' M rising. 



Outlying stone to centre ofj. _ _ ^ j ( May and 



circle / "•» t33 j» ^ I .August Sun. 



The Pleiades and Arcturus were the warning stars 

 for the May and August festivals respectively. Of 

 these, the Arcturus alignment is the better preserved, 

 and this gives the date of erection of the circle as 

 about 1400 B.C. 



The stones known as " Long- INIeg and her 

 Daughters " are in the neighbourhood of Little 

 Salkeld, a few miles from Langwalby. There are 

 sixty-eight stones in the circle, and at least one other 

 is buried. The 25-inch Ordnance map gives a fairly 

 accurate plan. The diameters are about 350 feet in 

 an east and west direction, and 305 feet north and 

 south. 



Between six and seven hundred yards to the north- 

 east there is a small circle of some 15 feet diameter 

 composed of eleven good-sized stones. 



The only shaped stone, Long Meg, is to the south- 

 west of the main circle. It is more than 12 feet in 

 height, and is deeply notched at the top. 



The alignments taken were : — 



(I) From the centre of the large circle, over a stone 

 which is now recumbent, to a well defined gap on 

 Xewbeggin Fell (the only well defined gap on the 

 horizon) ; (2) from the centre of the large circle to 

 that of the small outlying circle; (3) from Long Meg 

 to the centre of the large circle. 



These are dealt with in Table IL, and we here also 

 get the date from the Arcturus alignment. This date 

 is 1 130 B.C., showing that Long Meg was probably 

 erected after the Keswick circle had fallen into disuse. 



Table \l.—Long Meg (Lat. 54° 43' 20"). 



Azimuth Decl. 



.Mignirent Altitude E. of N. N. Object 



Circle to Gap (New ^; ,; ,'; ; ^; ,"„ .".jSssf *'■«'"■''= 



beggin Fell) . 



35 



rising. 



lifcle""'.'. '"..':"'") 3" " - 64=440 ... .6 44 35 {-""^■"-"'' 



Long Meg to centre * „ ,„ „„ 



fi -I / 2 40 o ... 40 37 20 



of large cite e ... i ^^ ^' 



10 44 35 \ August Sun. 



f Summer 

 =3 53 40 -^ solstice. 



Fuller descriptions of the circles, and details of the 

 alignments and the degrees of accuracy to be ex- 

 pected, are given in the original paper in the Proceed- 

 ings of the University of Durham Philosophical 

 Society. An appendix contains the results of a geo- 

 logical examination of the stones made by Dr. Woola- 

 cott. These circles are now brought into line with, and 

 render an additional verification (if such were needed) 

 of, the theories first formulated by Sir Norman 

 Lockyer. 



THE FLORA OF SOUTH AFRICA.'- 



\XrffILE ostensibly forming a part of the scientific 

 * results of the I'aldivia expedition of 1898-9, 

 the present volume is in reality much more than this. 

 Indeed, it represents the results of many years of work 

 and experience of the flora of South Africa. For an 

 account of this flora, the editor of these memoirs has 

 been singularly fortunate in securing the cooperation 

 of Dr. Marloth. The author has given to botanists 

 an excellent and comprehensive survey, which for 

 many years must form a standard reference work on 



1 " Wissenschafthche Ergebnisse der deutscben Tiefsee-Expedition auf 

 dem Dampfer I'nhik'in. ifog-iSgg." Edited by Prof. Carl Chun. 

 2weiter Band, Dritter Teil. Das Kapland, insonderheit das Reich der 

 Xapflora, das Waldgebiet und die Karroo, pflanzengeographisch dar- 

 ^estellt. By Rudolf Marloth. Pp. 436 ; with 20 plates and S maps. (Jena : 

 ■Guslav Fischer, 1908.) Prices loo marks and 81.50 marks. 



NO. 2074, VOL. 81] 



the plant-geography of South Africa. The volume 

 contains a full historical summary of the work of 

 previous investigators and travellers, adds much that 

 is new, and supplies a series of vivid descriptions of the 

 peculiar vegetation of this quarter of the globe. 



After giving an account (accompanied by a series 

 of maps) of the various floral regions as suggested by 

 earlier plant-geographers, the author proposes a 

 scheme of his own. This resembles, on the whole, 

 that proposed by Dr. Bolus in 1905, but differs in 

 several essentials from any previous scheme. The 

 following are the larger divisions now suggested : — 



(\) The Cape Province of the South-west. 



(B) The Southern Palaeo-tropical Provinces, which 

 include : — 



(i) The grass steppes of Rhodesia, the Northern 

 Transvaal, part of Natal, &-c. 



(2) The South-eastern Littoral. 



(3) The forests of the South Coast. 



(4) The Central Region, including the Karroo, the 

 Karroid uplands, and Little Namaqualand. 



(5) The Western Littoral. 



The essential difl'erences between Dr. Marloth 's 

 scheme and earlier ones consist in (a) the more 

 accurate delimitatioa of the Cape Province, (6) the 

 separation of the forest region of the South Coast 

 from the Cape Province, and (c) the smaller sub- 

 divisions which he proposes for the above provinces. 

 Though brief descriptions are given of the others, the 

 onlv regions treated in detail in this volume are the 

 Cape Province, the South Coast forests, and the 

 Central Region. Each of these may now be briefly 

 noticed. 



The Cape Province. — The peculiar systematic char- 

 acter of the Cape flora is, of course, well known. It 

 is exceedingly rich in species, many of which have a 

 very limited range, and includes numerous endemic 

 forms of the orders Proteaceae, Thymelseacese, 

 Ericaceae, Restionacea, &-c. The dominant vegeta- 

 tion is a " Macchia," composed of sclerophyllous 

 evergreen shrubs, with small, entire, xerophytic 

 leaves. Mixed with the shrubs, but subordinate to 

 them, are many xerophytic dicotyledonous herbs, 

 together with bulbous and succulent monocotyledons, 

 and manv Restionaceae. This Macchia (see Fig. i), 

 which somewhat resembles that of the Mediterranean 

 region, forms the real climatic type of vegetation of 

 the Cape region. Other ecological types, e.g. those 

 found in marshes, or on rocky ground, sand dunes, 

 &c., are due to local edaphic influences. The Macchia 

 is typical only where the original vegetation has not 

 been destroyed, and Dr. Marloth is of opinion that if 

 the land were freed from the influence of bush fires 

 and of grazing herds of domestic animals, in fifty 

 years' time it would become entirely covered with a 

 dense, impenetrable Macchia. 



Dr. Marloth has explored many of the mountains 

 outside the area of the Cape Province proper, and 

 finds that outliers of the Cape flora occur as 

 " islands " on the higher mountain ridges, both in the 

 Karroo and also in Little Namaqiialand. The occur- 

 rence of these Cape " islands " is, he considers, 

 largely due to the fact that the ridges are sufficiently 

 high to experience the effects of the rainy south-east 

 winds. Their climate thus more nearly resembles that 

 of the Cape than that of tlie dry desert plains below 

 them. Besides this, wherever edaphic and other 

 factors permit, there is a reciprocal invasion between 

 Cape and Karroid forms. For instance, even those 

 parts of the Cape region which have the greatest 

 rainfall are not entirely devoid of succulent immi- 

 grants from the Karroo. Comparatively few succu- 

 lents, how_ever, can survive tlie effects of an excep- 

 tionallv rainv winter. 



