66 
Annals of the Transvaal Museum. 
the genera Acontias, Sepsina, Melanoseps, Oedura, Phelsuma, and Phyllo- 
dactylus) ; and though the evidence of these few lizards is in itself hardly 
sufficient to warrant the hypothesis of the existence in the secondary 
period of a continent (Lemuria) stretching between South Africa, Mada- 
gascar, and southern India, it is of interest to note that similar relationships 
in these several areas have been found also in other groups of 
animals (mammals, birds), and certain geologists have advocated this 
theory on the evidence of a similarity between the fossil plants and reptiles 
of South Africa and India. The theory was strenuously opposed by 
Wallace, who, on account of the great depths of ocean which separate the 
extensive shoals and coral reefs now to be found in the Indian Ocean 
between Madagascar and India, considered that there could not have been 
a continuous land surface during the secondary or tertiary periods, but 
admitted the former existence in those parts of several large islands, some 
of them not much inferior in size to Madagascar itself ; and these islands 
he supposed were stepping-stones for an interchange of faunas. Neverthe- 
less the Lemuria theory still has its champions, and, for instance, Major 
Alcock (A.M.N.H. 7.14.267) explains the distribution of the Coeciliidae and 
of some hermit crabs in terms of this same theory. Other writers, in order 
to explain a certain affinity between the land shells of Australia and those 
of southern Africa, have requisitioned the Antarctica theory, and Hedley 
indeed (A.M.N.H. 6.17.117) considers that there has been a direct or more 
probably indirect land connection through Antarctica between Australia 
and Africa ; and Gilchrist (“ Science in South Africa”, p. 192), referring to 
certain genera of marine fish common to the Antarctic region and to South 
African waters, says that the “ shore forms might be taken as additional 
evidence of the former existence of an Antarctic continent”, but guardedly 
adds “ an explanation postulating the existence or removal of continents is 
to be regarded as a last resource ”. 
However this may be, it appears that the affinities of the South African 
lizards with those of other regions are to be paralleled, not only amongst 
other groups of animals, but also in the plants of the present day, for Bolus 
(“ Science in South Africa”) says that, “the flora of the south-west Cape 
Colony presents striking marks of a similar origin to that of Australia”, 
and Wallace states that “the affinities of the Madagascar flora are largely 
African, whilst Bentham emphasizes the fact that “ the connection of the 
mascarene endemic compositae, especially those of Madagascar itself, are 
eminently with the southern and sub-tropical African races”. 
As regards the entity of the South African region as a zoological area, 
there can be no doubt but that the distinction between the peculiar 
endemic fauna of southern Africa and the fauna of tropical Africa is too 
pronounced to permit of our regarding the South African region as merely 
a province of the large Ethiopian area and indeed, but for the infiltration 
of tropical forms, no one would hesitate to unite South Africa with Mada- 
gascar as a region quite distinct from the more northern parts of Africa. 
But the question of the northern boundary of our area is quite another 
matter. It is obvious that under the circumstances the South African area 
must include all the southern African families and genera of Madagascar 
affinities, but as there are no strongly-marked natural boundaries, some few 
species, e.g. G-errhosaurus flavigularis, have extended far into tropical 
Africa. I do not think it necessary to attempt to include the remotest 
limits of every widely-distributed species unless a sufficient number of 
species belonging to different genera extend thus widely but it must 
comprise the majority of the species. To fulfil these conditions the 
