“ The Karroo ” in August. 103 
stones have given to the whole a hard caked surface. On the 
hillocks and kopjes, large boulders, and here and there ridges of 
bare rock, are abundant. 
The mass of the vegetation is composed of dwarfed shrubs, 
about 2—3 feet (sometimes more) in height (Figs. 1—3, PI. V.) 
Though these shrubs belong to many natural orders, their habit, as 
seen from a little distance, is remarkably uniform. For the most 
part they have a rounded outline, are richly branched, and usually 
possess leaves of an ericoid type. Such are Gnlenia africana (Fig. 3, 
PI. V.), Polygala teretifolia, Hermannia sp., Zygophyllum sp. (Fig. 
1, PI. V.), and some Composite, e.g. Elytropappus. 
Another very common type of shrub is that shown in Fig. 3, 
PI. VII.; the woody stems are thick and gnarled, and project one 
or two feet from the soil, being crowned above with a dense tuft of 
small branches. Pelargonium alternans and many other plants 
show this peculiar habit. 
The leaves and stems are often glaucous ( Zygophyllum sp.), but 
sometimes ( Polygala sp.) they are covered with short, felted hairs, 
giving a greyish aspect to the bush. 
In addition to those mentioned above, succulent shrubs are 
fairly abundant. These possess the usual rounded outline, but 
instead of the narrow ericoid leaves, we find either thick, fleshy 
leaves, as in many species of Mesembrianthemum (Text-fig. 5, 19), 
Cotyledon (Fig. 2, PI. VII.), Aloe (Fig. 1, PlateVII.), etc., or succulent 
water-storing stems, as in the species of Mesembrianthemum shown 
in Fig. 2, PI. V., or in a large shrubby species of Euphorbia d 
The prevailing colour of the vegetation, at the time of our 
visit in August, was a dull greyish green, though distinctly greener 
than we had expected to see it. The colour, however, was by no 
means uniform. Here and there, where shrubs of Galenia africana 
(Fig. 3, PI. V.), or the Euphorbia mentioned above, were numerous, 
the colour was a greenish yellow, while in such spots as that shown 
in Fig. 2, PI. V., the green hue was almost entirely lost, the stems 
of the Mesembrianthemum shown in the foreground, imparting a 
bleached, grey appearance to the scene. 
Here and there the general level of the plain is interrupted by 
water-courses. The latter, at the time of our visit, usually con¬ 
tained little, if any, water, but were easily recognisable, even from 
a distance, by the low trees or larger shrubs which fringe their 
banks (Figs. 1, 2, PI. VI..) These dwarfed trees were, for the most 
A small specimen of this Euphorbia is seen on the left of Fig. 1, 
FI. VII. 
1 
