Floiuering Plants and Ferns of the Gape Peninsula. 211 



and thus constituted the foundation of all future work upon the 

 subject. The authors divided the Cape Colony and Natal into five 

 great divisions. Of these, the third, named by them *' Terra inferior 

 Occidentalis," and the fourth, ** Terra inferior Australis," are almost 

 exactly what I have called the South-western Eegion. 



This Eegion, which I have treated of somewhat more fully, 

 though quite inadequately, elsewhere (" Sketch of the Flora of South 

 Africa," in the Official Handbook of the Cape of Good Hope, 1886), 

 is probably one of the oldest, most distinct, and most interesting, 

 botanical Kegions of the world. Though it has now been consider- 

 ably explored, probably 90-95 per cent, of its species being known, 

 no systematic tabulation or census of its Orders, genera, and species 

 has been made within recent years; and Drege's researches, valuable 

 as they were, taken alone, are too incomplete to be useful at the 

 present time. 



The chief characteristics of the Flora of the South-western Eegion, 

 as to its general appearance, and stating them very briefly, are : — 



1. The great prevalence of dwarf bushy plants, with small and 

 often heath-like leaves. 



2. A deficiency in the luxuriance of the vegetation. 



3. The general paucity of trees (only the small forest-area near 

 its eastern extremity being excepted). 



4. A deficiency of stretches of grass, or turf -formations ; grasses 

 being by no means wanting, but characterised by growth in separate 

 tufts, intermingled with other plants. 



5. The fewness of sociable plants, i.e., of species growing together 

 to the more or less complete exclusion of others. 



6. The small proportion (in individuals rather than in species) of 

 annual plants. 



7. The great diversity of species; or, in other words, the large 

 proportion of species which have a small area of distribution. 



8. The small proportion, both in respect of species and indi- 

 viduals, of introduced, or foreign plants (excepting only recent forest- 

 plantations). 



In all these characters the Flora of the Peninsula agrees with 

 that of the larger Eegion of which it forms part. 



In respect of the systematic character of the Flora of the South- 

 western Eegion, as above stated, the data for an exact comparison are 

 wanting. For the most part, doubtless, the chief Orders and genera 

 are the same. But towards the eastern portion of the Eegion the 

 influence of the Eastern or Sub-tropical Flora begins to be felt ; 

 whereas in the Cape Peninsula it is scarcely perceptible. Speaking 

 broadly, the orders ORCHiDACEiE, Ekicace^, and Ficoide^ probably 



