CHARACTER OF COUNTRY 45 



mimosas have but one stem or branch immediately above the ground like a shrub, 

 in all cases they grow upwards for some distance and then spread out like a 

 mushroom, or an umbrella. Generally the trees are so far apart that an almost 

 uninterrupted view can be obtained between them, but occasionally they give the 

 landscape a park-like appearance. Even, however, in these park-like tracts there 

 is no even spread of greensward, the coarse grass always growing in separate 

 tussocks, between which is visible the bare red soil. 



In South Africa during the dry season, that is to say from the beginning of 

 May till the end of June, when the cloudless sky arches over the barren wintry 

 landscape, and the pure dry air makes distant objects plainly visible, the plains are 

 all one uniform monotonous grey, while the shrubs and trees are mostly leafless 

 and bare. After the first rain of spring the moist soil is, however, covered with 

 green in a marvellously short time, while the dark foliage of the trees stands out 

 conspicuously against the light green of the young herbage and the pale straw- 

 colour of the winter-grass. No shrub is more characteristic of this part of the 

 veldt than the karu-thorn (Acacia horrida), with its hard white thorns, fragrant 

 yellow blossoms, and much-divided pinnate leaves. In some places, as for instance 

 in the dry river-beds of the karu, it develops into a tree, of which the umbrella- 

 like crown resembles that of a Mediterranean pine. Farther north the trees of the 

 South African veldt become taller and more numerous ; but the highlands, extending 

 from Natal westwards, are, except near the banks of the rivers, almost treeless, 

 while yet farther west dwarf trees and shrubs preponderate, and the entire 

 landscape gradually becomes more and more completely desert-like. 



On the eastern coast the shore of the Red Sea is, at least in many parts, a semi- 

 desert, or even a true desert; while farther south, between Kilimanjaro and the 

 coast, deserts and semi-deserts alternate with less arid types of landscape. Among 

 the plants of this tract are some which may almost be called monstrosities. At 

 first the traveller meets with clumps of trees with short stems of the circumference 

 of a man's body, and green tops formed of branches as thick as a finger but devoid 

 of leaves. Although these euphorbias (Etuphorbia tirucalli), as they are termed, 

 appear to have been introduced in the coast districts and Abyssinia, they grow 

 wild in the interior. In other districts the sandy plain is covered for miles with 

 plants of from 2 to 5 feet in height, which grow in isolated patches, and consist 

 mainly of other kinds of euphorbias, bearing, instead of leaves, conical hard thorns, 

 as sharp and penetrating as needles. 



In the district stretching along the western coast of South Africa between the 

 18th and 20th degrees of S. latitude, which, at least in the neighbourhood of 

 the sea, has a distinctly desert character, flourish several equally remarkable 

 plants. The region near the coast consists of ancient lofty mountains so deeply 

 buried in sand that only their summits stand out. Thence eastwards to the 

 Kalahari extend stony table-lands, interrupted here and there by shallow valleys, 

 and locally known as karus. The vegetation of this tract varies according to the 

 nature of the soil, which is either sandy, stony, or rocky. Near the coast this 

 vegetation is but poor, such plants as manage to grow being widely separated 

 from one another. In those places where water has collected on the surface and 

 along the rivers in Damaraland occur thick woods, composed chiefly of acacias, 



