2 
THE FLORA OF THE GREAT KARASBERG 
to establish a slight degree of affinity with the Cape region. These desert 
species may, in general, be taken to represent the most resistant or most 
plastic forms of the floras of the neighbouring regions, which have been able 
to adapt themselves to the severe conditions which now prevail. 
These facts invest the study of the vegetation of any mountain-range, 
situated on or near the western edge of the central plateau, with particular 
interest. Such a range will almost certainly enjoy a higher rainfall than 
the surrounding country. It may therefore be expected to harbour a richer 
collection of the forms proper to the region in which it stands as well as, 
especially on its higher- slopes, species related to those of more distant 
localities. While these latter may or may not be held to throw light upon 
the past history of the flora now existing, it is hardly possible that the 
former will not afford some information as to the relationships obtaining 
between the vegetation of the regions meeting in or near the range. In a 
dry country the influence of a mountain-range so situated as to possess a 
moie constant water-supply than the less elevated land in the vicinity must 
be widely felt — especially in such cases as that of South-West Africa, in 
which the rainfall is not only small but fitful. In many seasons the rainfall 
