8U 



tliunhergii occurs all OA'er South Africa. Tliey are all Ylei 

 and stream-bank species, but they rarely assume dominance. 

 They are very like the Setarias, but are easily distinguished 

 by the fact that the bristles fall off with the spikelets. Penni- 

 setum longistylum (the Kikuvu grasis), a native of East Africa, 

 has recently been introduced into cultivation in South Africa. 



Pcntameris (Temperate). A distinctive endemic genus 

 nearly allied to Pentaschistis, from which it differs only in the 

 characters of the ovary and fruit (see key). It consists of five 

 species which are confined to the Macchia region of the Cape. 

 P. thuarii and P. speciosa are the commonest. All the species 

 are extremely xerophytic with woody or suffrutescent bases, 

 deej) roots, and rigid wiry leaves. They grow in isolated tufts 

 among the shrubs of the Macchia. 



Pentaschistis (Temperate). A large endemic African 

 genus of over forty species, separated by Stapf from Danthonia 

 by its endemic distribution, habit, and reduction of the florets 

 to 2. Only a few species occur outside South Africa in the 

 tropical parts of the same continent, and in South Africa the 

 majority of the species are confined to the South Western 

 region. Some of the species belong to the early stages of the 

 xerarch succession to Macchia, e.g., P. tortuosa, P. pallescens, 

 P. tliunhergii, and P. angiistifolia. Most of the species, how- 

 ever, occur among the Macchia shrubs at the climax stage as 

 isolated individuals or as small clans or societies, the com- 

 monest bein-g P. ciurifolia, P. aristidoides, P. pallescens, P. 

 coloratn, P. argentea, P. ca/pen.^is, P. acinosa, P. aspera, P. 

 an gusti folia, P. thvnhergii, and P. aeroides. 



In Pentaschistis, as in other characteristic Cape genera, 

 there are a few species which have a more Eastern distribution. 

 Around Grahamstown there are P. curvifolia, P. fibrosa, and 

 P. longipes; on the mountains of the Karroo near Graaff- 

 Eeinet P. angustifolia and in Calvinia P. heferocliaeta ; still 

 further east on the Witteberg at altitudes of 7-8,000 feet 

 P. jiigorum, on the Drakensberff and Stormberg P. aeroides, 

 on Mount Currie near the IVatal border P. fysoni, and in the 

 mountain regions of l^atal itself P. natalensis. 



Some of the species are confined to that northern outlier 

 of the South Western I'lora in the mountains of Namaqualand, 

 e.g., P. tomentella, P. filiformis, P. brachyathera, P. 

 euadenia. 



