Flowering Plants and Ferns of tJie Cajje- Peninsula. 209' 



INTKODUCTION. 

 By Harry Bolus, D.Sc, F.L.S. 



The Cape Peninsula is a narrow mountainous tract of land lying in 

 a direction nearly due north and south, situate at the south-western 

 extremity of Southern Africa. In length it is about forty miles (from 

 Mouille Point to Cape Point), with a width varying from two to 

 eight or nine miles. For the purposes of this inquiry and to avoid 

 the tortuous line of an ill-defined water-shed, an arbitrary line has 

 been assumed as its landward boundary across the low-lying sandy 

 isthmus which connects it with the mainland. This line, which is 

 about thirteen miles in length, lies in a north-easterly and easterly 

 direction three miles distant from, and parallel with, the great high- 

 road which skirts the foot-hills of the mountain range, and which 

 runs from Cape Town to Muizenberg (continuing to Simon's Town). 

 Thus, it commences from the shore of Table Bay, a little beyond 

 Salt Eiver, and terminates on the shore of False Bay, three miles 

 east of the eastern extremity of the Muizenberg. The area of the 

 Peninsula thus enclosed is 197|- square miles,''' or about one-fourth 

 larger than the Isle of Wight, which contains 155 square miles. 



When we speak of a Peninsula we also, by a natural connection of 

 ideas, think of an island. When we discuss its physical characters, 

 and more especially its natural history, it is almost necessary to 

 know something of the nature of its connection with the mainland 

 from which it is partially cut off. From the mountain range, then, 

 which forms the backbone of the Peninsula there stretches a wide 

 expanse of sandy downs, broken here and there into low, yet still 

 sandy, hills or hillocks. That portion of this expanse which is 

 within our limits lies at an altitude of from forty to one hundred feet 

 above the level of the sea. But further landward the hills gradually 

 attain a greater height, and become less sandy, until at length, 

 towards the north-east, the Tygerbergen and other important hills 

 are reached at a distance of about twelve miles, and on the east at 

 twenty-five to thirty miles, the great range of mountains known in 

 that portion as the Hottentots- Holland Mountains, attaining to a 

 height of from 1,500 to 5,000 feet. 



These downs, commonly known by the name of the " Cape Flats," 



* For this calculation I am indebted to the kindness of Abraham de Smidt, 

 Esq., formerly Surveyor-General of the Cape Colony. 



