402 J. \V. BEWS. 



itself, and grows at least for a time, so that almost the whole 

 flora of a district may be found in the rocky situations. 

 Only a few of the rarer species are, so far as is known, con- 

 fined to such situations, e. g. Ilysanthes nana (597),. 

 Gladiolus saundersii (342), Bulbinella carnosa. 



If scrub is well developed around the bare rocky areas, the 

 seeds of the various shrubs and trees arrive first and scrub 

 develops forthwith, gi'assland as an intermediate stage being 

 omitted. This is what usually happens at the present time, 

 and one cannot but suspect that much of the coast grassveld 

 at present occupies situations where scrub or forest has been 

 destroyed by fire or otherwise. Grassveld also, however, a& 

 explained above, by the draining out of vleis replaces vlei 

 vegetation, and in such cases only gradually gives way to- 

 scrub. The exact position of grassveld in the prisere is, 

 therefore, not easy to determine. It is certainly more 

 primitive than scrub, to which it naturally gives way. If it 

 replaces scrub it only does so when the scrub has been 

 destroyed completely either by clearing operations or by 

 burning. The succession in the grassveld itself can only be 

 determined by studying subseres, as when the grasses recolonise 

 the numerous abandoned roads, where the vegetation has 

 been trampled out, or, on a larger scale, by noting what 

 happens Avhen the veld has been continuously burned every 

 year for a long period, with the result that primitive types 

 take possession. When the farmer begins to realise that such 

 primitive types, consisting of coarse xerophytic deep-rooted 

 grasses, have little grazing value, and consequently ceases to 

 burn the grass annually, an opportunity is given for observing 

 how the primitive types give way to more advanced stages of 

 the succession. 



(c) Primitive Grassveld. — The chief pioneer grasses over 

 most of the coast belt are species of Eragrostis (E. cur- 

 vula, E. plana, E. chalcantha, E. chloromelas), and 

 species of Sporobolus (S. indicus, S. rehmanni, 

 S. centrif ugus). Cynodon dactylon frequently colonises 

 open spaces, especially along pathways and abandoned cattle 



