696 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. No. 465. 



caterpillars, while contradictory if we were 

 inclined to form too hastily a generalization 

 based on the behavior of the Porthetria larvse 

 —a generalization that would explain the 

 going up to light as a reflex which had per- 

 sisted among all leaf-feeding lepidopterous 

 larv£e because of its advantageous leading of 

 them to the most succulent food — is not at all 

 contradictory of the point of view of the 

 biologist who believes in reflexes. Personally, 

 while still inclined to see more wit in ants 

 than Bathe's extreme confidence in the reflex 

 theory of their behavior would admit, and 

 while recognizing the reasonableness and legit- 

 imacy of the query, does the reflex basis of 

 behavior really simplify our conception of 

 the springs of animal behavior ? — I am willing, 

 on the evidence of the accumulating observa- 

 tions, to see much of the credit which insects 

 have long enjoyed for the possession of un- 

 usual intellectuality and elaborately developed 

 instinct, go by the board. Immediate physico- 

 chemical stimuli undotibtedly produce as di- 

 rect reflexive reactions many of the activities 

 which we have been long interpreting on a 

 basis of complex instincts and. associative 

 memory. Veenon L. Kellogg. 



Stanford University, Calif. 



notes on the vegetation of the transvaal. 



Before coming to the Transvaal I was in- 

 formed by a botanist who had some knowledge 

 of the South African flora that the flora of 

 the Transvaal was entirely xerophytic in char- 

 acter, and that it was largely composed of suc- 

 culent plants — Euphoriias, Aloes, Mesembry- 

 anthemums. Cotyledons, Crassulas and the 

 like. In my informant's mind it was appar- 

 ently a continuation of the flora of the Great 

 Karroo. 



Imagine my astonishment, therefore, after 

 crossing the Karroo, with its dreary plains so 

 like those of the Great Basin of North 

 America, even in the general aspect and color 

 of its vegetation, to find myself, on waking 

 up one morning, crossing a vast, grassy 

 plateau, the high veldt, practically destitute 

 of trees or shrubs, but producing masses of 

 tall, thick grass, recalling the prairies of the 

 far west. Later I found that this was a fair 



sample of the vast stretch of country extend- 

 ing from the confines of the Kalahari desert 

 in the west to the summits of the Drakens- 

 berg in the east. 



Grasses form the most conspicuous features 

 of the Transvaal flora. This is true, at least, 

 of the high veldt. They are only little less 

 abundant in those parts of the bush veldt 

 which I have seen. 



Succulents are rare, being practically con- 

 fined to rocky kopjes, i. e., buttes, and the 

 randjes, i. e., ridges, which cross the country 

 from east to west. Mesembryanthemums are 

 extremely scarce. Bulb and eorm-producing 

 plants abound among the grass. A few bushes 

 and small trees, evergreen Proteas, caulescent 

 Aloes and Cereus-like Euphorhias, deciduous 

 Comhretums, etc., also occur on the kopjes 

 and randjes. Patches of diminutive wood- 

 land, composed of Doorn-boom (Acacia lior- 

 rida) five to fifteen feet high, are occasionally 

 seen at long intervals in crossing the high 

 veldt, usually in the vicinity of water. 



As a rule, however, trees and shrubs are en- 

 tirely absent. I have driven all day, a dis- 

 tance of sixty miles, without seeing more than 

 one colony of bushes, that composed of about 

 twenty-five individuals in all, and they not 

 more than eighteen inches in height. In the 

 moist vleis, on the other hand, some of the 

 grasses — species of Andropogon — would be 

 eight and even ten feet in height. In the ab- 

 sence of woody plants Kaf&r and Boer alike 

 fall back on ' mist,' i. e., dried ox-dung, for 

 fuel. 



Grasses being, as I have said, the most 

 conspicuous feature of the high veldt flora, 

 one is naturally desirous of knowing what 

 grasses occur, and in particular, which are the 

 most abundant. 



Although but little work has been done on 

 the flora of the Transvaal, as compared with 

 that done on the flora of California, for in- 

 stance, a few good collections have been made, 

 particularly by Wilms Eehmann, Nelson, Gal- 

 pin and Hand, and sufiicient grass material 

 has been gathered by the three flrst named 

 collectors to give a general idea of the oc- 

 currence of the genera. Much still remains 



