Vegetation in Natal and the Transvaal. 
o 
rainfall make forest land possible to grass land such as is met with 
on the hills and on the upland round Petermaritzburg. Trees here 
are confined to the valleys and river-banks, while on the exposed 
uplands the grassland is only here and there dominated by succulent 
tree-aloes such as those seen around the back of Fort Wylie 
near Colenso, and on Waggon Hill near Ladysmith (see PI. 2, fig. 3). 
Other Monocotyledons found in the grass veld possess underground 
bulbs or conns and lose their vegetative organs during the adverse 
winter season. Of these plants, which detract somewhat from the 
feeding value of the pasturage when very abundant, various forms of 
brightly coloured HacniaiitJius seemed to be the most common 
during our visit to the higher portions of Natal. 
As stated before, in these uplands trees are mainly restricted 
to the water courses and consist for the most part of various species 
of Acacia. Some Australian trees however have been introduced, 
partly as shade trees and partly on account of their timber. 
They are drought resisting trees such as various forms of Eucalyptus, 
tJie Australian Silk-Oak (Grevillea robusta) and the graceful She- 
Oak ( Casuarina ), the latter having at a distance the appearance of 
a delicate leaved pine with pendant branches. But the most useful 
of all the introduced trees is undoubtedly the Black Wattle (Acacia 
decurrens). It is calculated that the plantations of the tree embrace 
about 25,000 acres and yield a yearly return of £100,000, for besides 
a large export of the bark for tanning purposes, nearly 20,000 tons 
of mining props are exported for use in the Transvaal Mines. 
Those parts of Natal on the East slopes of the Drakensberg 
range, which lie at an altitude of 4,000 ft. and upwards, are included 
by Dr. Bolus in the Kalahari Region, of which they form the Eastern 
portion, while the Western portion includes the whole of the Orange 
River Colony, the Transvaal and Bechuana Land. This Western 
portion represents a wide inland basin 3,000-ft. to 6,000-ft. above the 
sea level, and drained mainly by the Orange River and its tribu¬ 
taries, while the narrow Eastern portion has shorter and more rapidly 
running rivers which empty themselves into the Indian Ocean. 
The rainfall in this region, mainly due to Summer rains, varies 
very considerably, decreasing greatly as we pass westward from the 
High Drakensberg range, until we get ultimately into the Western 
Kalahari desert where the rainfall is less than 5 inches per annum. 
The vegetation is therefore naturally very varied. In the ravines to 
the East of the Drakensberg mountains are forests, while the 
“High Veld” to the West is a grass steppe. The climate of this 
