Books and Current Literature 



165 



tions has been very much modified by human agency. They 

 are confined to localities with somewhat less than 30 inches of 

 rain, falling chiefly in winter. Several types of swamps and 

 heaths are described for the Cape region proper, in which the 

 Restionaceae occupy the place of prominence held by Cyperaceae 

 and Juncaceae in other countries. The heaths and alpine forma- 

 tions of the highest mountains (6,600 ft.) are also described. 



Along the southeastern coast, to the east of New London, 

 there is a littoral belt with warm moist climate, characterized 

 by swamps of Bruguiera and Avicennia, and by the occurrence of 

 such tropical forms as Phoenix, Hyphaene and Strelitzia. Turn- 

 ing inland from the coastal belt an open savanna is encountered, 

 with islands of forest; still further, 40 to 60 miles from the coast, 

 we encounter the Kafnrland region. This has a highly diversi- 

 fied vegetation, an open stand of trees with abundant shrubs and 

 succulents, and is very rich floristically. It possesses some of 

 the most interesting of the South African succulents, species of 

 Aloe, Euphorbia, Haworthia, Gasteria and Apicra, many of which 

 resemble in form the Cactaceae and other succulents of the Amer- 

 ican deserts, while others are unique. The number of species 

 of succulents is greater in the African than in the American 

 deserts, they are of a wider range of. natural relationships, and 

 a larger percentage have developed the leaves as storage organs 

 rather than the stems, as witness many bizarre forms of Crass- 

 ula and Mesembryanthemum. 



The Kafifirland region merges on the north into the Busch- 

 veld, a park-like formation, with fewer bushes and more grass, 

 but just as many trees — largely Leguminosae and Combre- 

 taceae — and many succulents. By the growing scarcity of the 

 trees and succulents the Buschveld passes over into the Veld 

 of the Orange River Colony, a pure grass-land formation. To 

 the west the Kaffir region merges into the Karroo desert through 

 the growing scarcity of trees. In the Karroo the succulents form 

 nine-tenths of the flora and are preeminent in the vegetation, 

 while the sole trees are those of the Acacia type which border 

 the streams. Passing northward from the Karroo the elevation 

 increases, and on this highland the succulents become less pre- 

 dominant and the bushes more so, largely species of Compositae, 

 trees being extremely rare even along the streams. 



