Book Description

Excerpt from An Introduction to the Flora of Natal and Zululand The following work has been written for the purpose of assisting the study of plant ecology and botanical survey work in Natal. The "Handbook" published by the late Dr. Medley Wood is now no longer up to date, and is also out of print, and his "Revised List," with its supplements, is also incomplete, as well as difficult to procure. A general ecological account of the Natal vegetation, to a large extent compiled from my own previous writings, has been prepared, and it was intended that it should be included as part of the present work, but for various reasons it has been thought advisable to defer publication of this part of the manuscript. This has enabled the main section to be published in a more compact form. Ecological notes have been added in the case of the principal species to the records of distribution. Care has been taken to make the latter as complete and accurate as possible. Various Zulu names have also been included. The works enumerated in the Bibliography have been consulted throughout, and due acknowledgment of indebtedness must be made in particular to Medley Wood's various lists, to the "Flora Capensis," to Engler's "Fflanzenfamilien," and Thonner's "Flowering Plants of Africa." In the key to the families the last mentioned work was found particularly helpful, since, after due consideration, it was decided that the main principles of sub-division adopted by Thonner were more useful and easier to follow than any that could be substituted, without departing altogether from the natural system. The main groups are decided by the characters of the perianth, and the sub-divisions by the characters of the ovary and ovules. In many cases where there is a likelihood of mistakes being made, the family is included under more than one division. The keys given in the Flora Capensis have also been drawn upon freely. Considerable simplication throughout has been rendered possible, chiefly by the fact that a smaller area is dealt with. An attempt has been made to bring the nomenclature as up to date as possible, though it is hardly possible to attempt anything approaching finality in this respect until many further monographs have been published by specialists on various families and genera. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.