236 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY* 



THE SOUTH AFRICAN GERBERAS. 



By R. A. DuMMER, F.R.H.S. 



The genus Gerhera * of the family Compositae was founded by the 

 pre-Linnean botanist Gronovius in 1737, and commemorates the 

 two German brothers Gerber — Fr. Gerber, who collected plants 

 in the West Indies, and Traug. Gerber, who in 1732, at the command 

 of the Kaiserin Anna, travelled in Russia, Siberia, and Tartary 

 in search of plants. 



The group as at present conceived comprises approximately 

 forty-five species, of which twenty-five are scattered throughout 

 South Africa, especially in the coastal districts of Cape Colony, 

 extending from the south-western districts from the Cape Peninsula 

 eastwards up to Natal, and from thence inland into the drier districts 

 of the Kalahari Region, where in their respective seasons they con- 

 siderably enhance the beauty of the vegetation. 



Of the remaining species, three occur on the adjacent island of 

 Madagascar,|including the ubiquitous and widespread G. piloselloides , 

 three to Tropical Africa (the latter probably representing geographical 

 forms of the South African species or vice versa) , four to North Africa 

 and the Orient, j while the more temperate zones of India, with their 

 five, are followed by China with its eight species, one of which, a very 

 distinct plant, has recently been described in the Gardeners' Chronicle, 

 viz. G. hederaefolia, mihi. The Gerberas of the Cape Peninsula are 

 invariably found on the mountain slopes, principally of the Table 

 Mountain range, from sea-level up to elevations of about 1500 feet 

 among the "grassy" Restiaceous element, which is so characteristic 

 though mournful an ecological feature of these regions. Some luxuriate 

 in the crevices of outcrops of granite or the geological formation known 

 as the Table Mountain sandstone, a sandstone of reddish hue ; others 

 prefer more open and sandy situations, sand of a loose white coarse- 

 grained matrix, which also covers extensive tracts of the low-lying 

 flats in which many of the indigenous terrestrial Orchids, Iridaceous 

 plants, &c., revel. 



Their preference for the geological formation under consideration 

 is further evinced by their greater abundance in the coastal districts 

 which are traversed by this particular formation, and their absence 

 or rarity where it vanishes. The species nowhere appear to occur in 

 such abundance as to characterize the vegetation, but the extremely 



* Gerhera = Gerberia, Atasites, Idicium, Aphyllocaulon, Oreoseris, Berniera, 

 Chaptalia, Cleistanthium, Epiclinastrum, Lasiopus, Leibnitzia, Leptica, Anandria, 

 and U echtritzia of other authors. 



t Uechtritzia armena, Freyn = Gerhera armena, Diimmer, comb. nov. 



