The Garden Magazine, June, 1923 
251 
throughout the year, more so than the actual amount of rainfall per 
year or the chemical nature of the soils determines the character and 
richness of a country’s flora. 
C APE TOWN is the usual landing place of visitors to South Africa 
and there is no better place to commence our enquiry into the 
floral resources of the country. The city is charmingly situated along 
the shore of Table Bay with Table Mountain rising behind the town in 
a sheer precipice cutting the skyline with a jagged horizontal front 
two miles in length. The Cape promontory with its bold headlands 
divided leaves and white, suffused with pink, blossoms each three inches 
across, and the tine Everlasting Helichrysum vestitum, whose white heads 
imported into this country and Europe are much used by florists to 
whom they are known as “Capes.” The sandy flats have a flora 
peculiarly their own—where the soil is acid Heaths in endless variety 
crowd the land. What native trees there are, are relegated to the 
ravines and slopes where they find protection from the winds. 
Eorests are an infrequent feature of the landscape throughout the 
Cape of Good Hope. They are relegated to sheltered nooks and 
gullies and to the margins of streams. The coming of the European 
THE GERANIUM IS ONE OF SOUTH AFRICA’S MOST GRATEFUL GIFTS 
Rightly used it is one of the most serviceable plants, as in this effective terrace planting at the home of Mr. Jere A. Downs, Winchester, Mass. 
stretches some forty miles south to Cape Point. A narrow sandy neck 
separates Table and False Bays and joins the promontory to the 
mainland. 
Around Cape Town the Stone or Table Pine (Pinus Pinea ) of Italy 
and the Cluster Pine (Pinus pinaster) of southwestern Europe have 
been planted in quantity and form magnificent avenues and groves. 
Near by are fine plantations of the Monterey or Insignis Pine (Pinus 
radiata) of California. Many other trees, notably the common Oak 
of Europe (Quercus robur) and various Eucalypts have been extensively 
planted and it is astonishing how luxuriantly all these exotic trees flour¬ 
ish. The isthmus of shifting sands dividing the bays has been made 
available for residential purposes by the planting of Maram Grass 
(Ammophila arundinacea ) and Acacia saligna, a West Australian Wat¬ 
tle. The wild flora of the Cape promontory is remarkable for its 
wealth and diversity—Proteas and Heaths, succulents and bulbous 
plants, shrubs and herbs in a riot of species, flourish. The unique 
Silver Tree (Leucadendron argentum ) and several other plants are 
known to grow wild nowhere else. On dripping rock walls high up on 
Table Mountain flourishes Disa uniflora , its flower five inches-across 
with bright scarlet sepals and pink labellum, perhaps the most spectacu¬ 
larly beautiful terrestrial Orchid in the world. And there, too, grows 
the lovely Anemone capensis [Has any reader news of this Anemone 
which was introduced into cultivation in 1795?— Ed.] with finely 
with his agricultural schemes has brought about a great change every¬ 
where throughout the Cape. The forests have suffered heavily, though 
never in modern geological times did forests flourish over the face of 
South Africa as they do in the temperate regions of the Northern 
Hemisphere. On the coastal ranges from near Mossel Bay eastward 
for a hundred miles there is a belt some ten miles deep of magnificent 
rain-forests. The pretty little village of Knysna is situated well within 
the extreme edge of this forest and is a convenient place from which to 
investigate it. 
Formerly the dominant trees of these forests were Podocarpus lati- 
folia and P.falcata but broad-leaf trees have long since gained the as¬ 
cendancy. Where the woodman’s axe has been withheld or lightly 
used the Podocarps still tower above the invading horde of miscella¬ 
neous broad-leafs, veritable knights of the forests. A noble tree in 
particular is Podocarpus falcata with its shapely rounded crown topping 
a hundred feet tall, cvlindric bole clad with purple-brown flaking bark. 
Its relative, P. latifolia, is a somewhat smaller and less striking tree 
with light gray fibrous bark but its wood is the superior. The broad- 
leaf trees of these forests furnish valuable timber but with few excep¬ 
tions are unknown to the North. Several are handsome in blossom 
and among these mention may be made of the Cape Chestnut ( Caloden- 
dron capense ) with lustrous foliage and erect masses of large pinkish 
blossoms. This tree is much planted for ornamental purposes in 
