228 Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society. 



either so markedly predominant, or so essentially characteristic of 

 the Peninsula Flora that they constitute together 19 '55 per cent, of its 

 species, are so rare that only seven or eight species in all have been 

 recorded in the Karroo ; and most of these occur sparingly on the 

 summits of the mountains which separate the Karroo Region from 

 the other Regions of South Africa. 



European Representatives. 



The evidences of the connection of our Flora with that of Europe 

 are but slight. They consist in the presence of a small number of 

 genera common to both. Amongst these may be named Anemone, 

 Banwicuhts, Leindium, Geranium, Erodimn, Dianthus, Silene, Limcm, 

 Trifolium, Alchemilla, Bubus, Hydrocotyle, &c. They are almost all 

 small genera, only one, the last, reaching to 13 species. Some include 

 European species as well as species regarded as native, such as Trifo- 

 lium; others, as Anemone and Geranium, have native species only. 

 It is one of the most marked features of South African vegetation 

 that European genera are not, as a rule, found upon the higher 

 mountain summits, where they might have been expected, the only 

 exceptions I can recall hQing ^.iQ^N Banunciilis^^ndit^^o Alchemillasm 

 the north-eastern districts, but the species were all undoubtedly 

 native. The naturalised species of European origin are mostly weeds 

 of cultivation and roadside plants, and few are seen far from houses. 



The only sign of any affinity with the South American Flora 

 consists in the presence of many species of the genus Oxalis, which 

 are numerous in both countries. 



Affinities with the Australian Flora. 



The relations of our Flora, and therefore that of the whole South- 

 western Region, with that of Australia were first pointed out by Sir 

 Joseph Hooker in his classical essay, '* On the Flora of Australia. 

 . . . An Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania" (1859). 

 They are very remarkable and curious. These affinities do not 

 consist in the presence of identical species in either region ; and 

 scarcely even of genera common to both, for these are very few in 

 number. But they are evidenced by the presence of certain identi- 

 cal, or closely related. Orders which are either peculiar to Australia 

 and the South-western Region of South Africa or which there attain 

 their maximum development. 



" Two very distinct Orders — Proteace^ and Restionace^ — 

 are abundant in both regions, and, except for a few outliers, do not 



