The Flora of the Cape Peninsula. 
225 
with foliage adapted to the dry summer months, makes it more 
difficult for any one species to become dominant over a large patch 
of ground, and thus though there may be in the bush plants of a 
sociable habit which could form continuous growths like the ling, 
the cowberry, the bilberry and the bracken do on our moorlands and 
mountain sides, yet they are rarely able to establish themselves in 
such a dominant form. During a residence of twenty-seven years 
Dr. Bolus has only seen two species growing in such quantity and 
proximity as to give, when in flower, a colour to the mountain-side 
when viewed at a distance. These were Erica hirtiflora and 
Podalyria calycitrapa a papilionaceous shrub with large mauve- 
coloured flowers. 
Of course the conditions of life along the shore differ consi¬ 
derably from those of the mountain slopes, and the plants found 
there are of quite a distinctive type. Along the coast-line of Table 
Bay, bounding the “flats,” the vegetation resembles in aspect, 
though not in genera and species, that of our own shores. Sand¬ 
binding grasses occupy the extreme litoral zone forming and covering 
the lower sand-hills, while the somewhat higher dunes behind them 
are clothed with various plants with succulent leaves such as 
Mcsembryantliema with large purple and yellow flowers. Occa¬ 
sionally one finds a clump of Euphorbia Caput-Medusae with its 
succulent water-storing stem. Behind the sand-hills the extensive 
Flats are covered with a bush-formation of more or less heath-like 
plants similar to that found on the mountain slopes, though in and 
around the numerous shallow pools or “ Vleis” grow many marsh- 
plants including often the beautiful Arum Lily ( Ricliardia aetliiopica) 
which is still more common in damp meadows and hedgerows 
around the farms. The larger Vleis are often covered with the 
sweet-scented white inflorescences of the Cape Pond-Weed 
(Aponogeton distachyou) of which the starch-containing tubers, as 
well as the young inflorescences, are eaten as vegetables. 
Of the “ bush ” which covers the drier portions of the Flats, the 
foot hills and the slopes of Table Mountain, it is impossible to give 
an adequate and at the same time a concise account, owing to the 
great variety of its constituent plants, but attention should perhaps 
be drawn to a few of the commoner or more remarkable forms. 
Among the shrubby composites one notices the Rhenoster bush 
(Elytropappus ) (see Fig. 48) with small imbricating leaves, 
1 H. Bolus. Flowering Plants and Ferns of the Cape Peninsula. 
Trans, of the South African Phil, Soc., Vol. XIV., Part 3,1903, 
