INTRODUCTION 
7 
other area in the southern part of Great Namaqualand 1 . Whether the small 
quantity of rain measured at Narudas Sud in June 1912 indicates that the 
range usually receives a small winter fall, it is impossible to say. However 
this may be, the testimony of the few who know these mountains from year’s 
end to year’s end, is to the effect that the vegetation is quite dormant from 
May until January. Apart from the question of winter rain or drought, this 
condition is likely to result from low temperatures. At Narudas Slid, the 
pools in the Keiap River ai’e frequently frozen over and the ice so thick that 
skating is rendered impossible only by their small size. The bulbs shew 
above ground very soon after the first rains. The Grasses and Composites 
flower later ; this year very many of the latter were only in bud at the end of 
January. It is said that the vegetation is “ at its best ” in April. 
The expedition arrived at Wasserfall on the western flanks of the range 
on December 8, 1912. Hardly any rain had then fallen and the veld was 
brown. Boscia foetida, Sch. and Pliaeoptilon spinosum, Radik, were in full 
flower but little else was yet even in bud. Leaving Wasserfall on Dec. 21, 
we crossed the range, arriving at Narudas Slid on Dec. 28, fourteen days after 
the first heavy rain. Here the bulbs were rapidly bursting into leaf and 
flower and other types of vegetation generally shewed signs of re-awakened 
activity. After crossing the range again in the opposite direction and by 
another route, we left it finally on January 26. By this time it is probable 
that most of the annuals and the geophytes were in flower; one or two 
months more would undoubtedly have increased the number of peiennials in 
the collection and would have made it more truly representative of the floia 
as a whole. In fact the lists which follow must be regarded as indicating m 
the main the composition of the Spring Flora. And since one element ol 
this spring vegetation — viz. the bulbous monocotyledons is chaiacteiistic of 
the Kalahari rather than of Namaqualand proper, this collection taken 
by itself would indicate that the Kalahari element in the Karasberg flora 
bulks more largely than is actually the case. At the same time the Kalahaii 
element is very marked not only in the bulbs but also in the Grasses, 
Acacias, Pedalineae, Cucurbitaceae and other groups. These are found in 
the main where the edaphic conditions resemble those of the Kalahari, 
i.e. where sand has accumulated. On the granite slopes, the flora is in the 
main that which is characteristic of the lower mountains of Namaqualand. 
Aloe dichotoma is abundant up to an elevation of 4700 ft. on the eastern side 
of the range and passes the 5000 ft. line on the western slopes. Above 
i In the summer of 1912-13 the drought remained almost unbroken throughout this area 
save only in the Great Karasberg. 
