CHAPTER XXVII 
SCRUB 
SuCH expressions as “ Xerophytic hard-leaf flora,” magus, 
garigue, thornwood, and the like are not generally known 
in this country, in the sense in which they are used by 
Schimper and others. Nor is there any really good 
popular word to describe this sort of vegetation, so that 
we have been reduced to “scrub,” which will perhaps 
give the idea of a scattered, shrubby, very often thorny, 
and always almost inedible bush, and which is very 
common in dry, warm and temperate countries.* 
Such a vegetation as this is typical of many Mediter- 
ranean lands, of many parts of South Africa, especi- 
ally near Cape Town, of the coast hills of Chile near 
Valparaiso, and is apparently (from description) exceed- 
ingly common both in Australia and California. 
It is perhaps the most puzzling of all. If one begins 
to note down the various types of it to be found, say in 
Spain, or in Corsica, the number becomes appalling, 
and one very soon begins to doubt whether it is really a 
natural vegetation, or only a series of transitional types 
which represent stages in the formation of some kind of 
wood or forest. 
Near deserts, as in North Africa, one finds thorriy 
acacia thickets which represent one type of scrub speci- 
ally adapted to invade and colonise deserts. 
Where there is a good rainfall, as towards the north 
* Schimper’s chief character is the hard, rather dry leaf. But gummy and 
woolly leaves are very common. Thorns and bulbous plants are also 
abundant. 
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