58 



high, and does not flower so freely, though it flowers earlier. 

 On the whole it should he ranked as a moderately mesophytic 

 type. It is a very good grazing grass, hut it varies somewhat 

 in this respect also. The glaucous "Blue grass" variety is- 

 considered more valuahle than the typical Bed grass. Fig. 5 

 shows a transverse section of a rather narrow leaf of Antliis- 

 tiria. It is very similar to the Andropogons. There is a very 

 distinct midrib, which enahles the leaf to fold (conduplicate) 

 in dry weather. The ridges are nearly ohsolete, and between 

 them are large epidermal water storage cells which do not 

 function as motor cells. The leaf therefore does not roll up 

 from the margins. The main vascular strands are girdered by 

 sclerenchyma above and below, but the total amount of fibre 

 is not excessive. 



Fig 5. — Transverse Section of a portion of a leaf of Anthistiria imberbis 

 (x about 60). 



Anthoxanthiini. Two species A. dregeanum and A, 

 tongo are South Western, and the third A. ecklonii is a Moun- 

 tain Veld species of the Transitional belt and Eastern side. 

 It grows in isolated tufts or tussocks. Like the European 

 A. ocloratum this grass is sweet scented. 



Aristida. (See Fig. 1 F.) The most important genus in 

 the early stages of succession, throughout South African grass- 

 land, and dominant over enormous areas of open or semi-open 

 grassland or semi-desert of the Western side. As Stapf has 

 pointed out the genus Aristida contains two ecological types, 

 one a desert type, recruited chiefly from the section Stipa- 

 grostis, which has 3 nerved glumes and plumose awn bristles, 

 and the other a steppe type from the sections Chaetaria and 

 Arthratherum, which have 1 nerved glumes and glabrous 

 awns, but the two types merge into one another. 



