(403) 



EESULTS OF EXPEEIMENTS ON TABLE MOUNTAIN 

 FOE ASCEETAINING THE AMOUNT OF MOISTUEE 

 DEPOSITED FEOM THE SOUTH-EAST CLOUDS. 



By E. Marloth, Ph.D., M.A. 



(Plate VIL) ' . 



The cHmate of the south-western corner of South Africa is charac- 

 terised by a rainy winter and a dry summer. While the total 

 annual rainfall at the Eoyal Observatory is ^7*95 inches/' three- 

 fourths of this quantity, viz., 22*04 inches, fall during the six winter 

 months, and 2*15 only, or 8 per cent., during the three summer 

 months (December to February). Small as this latter quantity may 

 be, it is often not reached, and it will even happen that two months 

 pass without a drop of rain, or four months with less than a total of 

 1 inch. ■ j 



Under these circumstances it is quite justifiable to call our summer 

 practically rainless, although sometimes a single summer month 

 may show as much as 3 inches of rain. 



As I was induced to study this question principally on account of 

 the influence which the rainfall and its distribution over the seasons 

 have on the vegetation of our mountains, I may point out at once that 

 the occurrence of an occasional wet summer in a country where this 

 season is generally rainless would not affect the typical xerophilous 

 nature of the vegetation, while, on the other hand, an exception- 

 ally dry summer in a district which generally receives its rains 

 during that season would weed out all plants which are without 

 means of protection against such a calamity. These means of 

 protection may be of various kinds, but they must enable the 

 plants to tide over the period of drought and to preserve their 

 life until better times, even if all delicate parts have to be 

 sacrificed. 



Bearing these facts in mind, it is easy to recognise from a glance 



* The average for the ten years 1885 to 1894, taken from Mr. A. Buchan's report. 



