METALLICITY DISTRIBUTION OF BULGE GLOBULAR-CLUSTERS IN M31

This paper presents 3600-5400 Angstrom integrated spectra of 19 globul ar clusters (or candidates) projected on the central regions of M 31, r less than or equal to 5.3' (approximate to 1.2 kpc). We check the cl uster nature of these objects, and derive their ages, metallicities an d reddenings. From the initial sample, 16 objects turn out to be true star clusters, two are Galactic dwarf stars, and one is a high redshif t background galaxy. Only two clusters are found to be super metal-ric h, suggesting that this phenomenon is not very common. For some cluste rs, we cannot rule out the possibility that they are of intermediate a ge; this requires confirmation by observations at the calcium triplet. We also present the metallicity histogram of this central bulge sampl e and discuss possible scenarios to explain its properties.