512 J. W. BEWS. 



very common in natural veld, but it frequently holds the field 

 where the ground has at some time or other been ploughed or 

 dug up. 



(e) Grass Associations on Stony Hillsides. — It has 

 been pointed out that in the low veld region, in addition to 

 the alluvial flats and gently sloping ground, there are places 

 where the river and its tributaries have cut down steeply. 

 Such slopes may be so steep that they cease to be veld, and 

 we get the rocky hillside formation described on p. 528. 

 Between this extreme and the typical low veld we get hillsides 

 where the grasses grow in semi-isolated tufts : 



Aristida angustata, A. junciformis, Andropogou 

 hirtus, A. schoenanthus, A. spp., Eragrostis chal- 

 cantha, Crossotropis grandiglumis are characteristic 

 ')f such hillsides. 



Anthistiria imberbis may occur in patches where a 

 fair depth of soil has accumulated, but such patches ought 

 perhaps to be looked on as outliers from the typical low veld 

 association. 



It is in its general appearance more than in its composition 

 that this type differs from the others. It becomes a semi-open 

 formation. As the tufts of grass grow further and further 

 apart, it passes into the rocky hillside formation. This type 

 practically always forms part of the thorn veld, the trees of 

 which are described later. 



(f) Associated Plants of the Low Veld. — The various 

 thorn trees which make up the thorn veld might be included 

 here, but it has been thought advisable to devote a separate 

 section to them so as to compare them rather to the trees of 

 the bush. Of the other associated plants, those that occur in 

 the Andropogon associations of the transitional belt are 

 included in the list already given (pp. 505-6), The associated 

 plants are much more abundant on such broken ground, and 

 do not occur so frequently in the low veld proper. The 

 following, however, are all common and characteristic of it . 



Crotalaria distans, C. spp.j Indigofera longipes, 

 I. spp., Tephrosia spp., Crassula spp., Hetero- 



