10 E.P.Phillips 



A Preliminary Note on the Flora in the neighbourhood of 

 Bethlehem, 0,F.S. 



By E. P. Phillips. M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S. 

 Division of Botany^, Pretoria. 



The following notes have been got together as the result of a 

 short visit to Bethlehem at the beginning of December, 1919. 

 The locality is an extremely interesting one as in quite a small 

 area various types of habitats may be met vv^ith each carrying a 

 different flora. Mr. Theo. Potgieter B.A., who accompanied 

 me when out collecting is following up this work and as he is 

 resident in Bethlehem he will be in a better position to do justice 

 to a descriptive account of the flora. No work of this description 

 has been yet attempted in any detail for the Orange Free State 

 and if workers can be found in other localities to undertake the 

 collection of the plants and the writing up of the results of their 

 observations our knowledge of the flora of this large area will be 

 materially advanced. The general notes given here may be 

 a guide to collectors who are anxious to make some field obser- 

 vations as a supplement to their collecting. 



The town of Bethlehem is partly surrounded by dry stony 

 kopjes beyond which arc large expenses of grass veld. To the 

 N.W. of the town is a flat kopje of cave-sandstone — an outlier 

 of the formation which is commonly met wdth further eastwards— 

 and it was only on this kopje that bush was met with. At the 

 lower end of the town is the river which runs down a ravine and 

 then broadens out into more or less stagnant water. The river 

 in some places is lined with willows and higher up on its banks 

 pines have been planted. Under the shade of these trees and on 

 more or less damp ground a species of Bromus is dominant and 

 growing among the grass occasional specimens of Ceranium 

 incanum are met with. Further away from the river bank and 



