asi 



r 



never.theless represents only cue of a scries of form&, which 

 hardly admit of independent recognition, though the extremes 

 are readily separable. Brandegee No. 93, from Monterey has 

 leaves like those of var. palleiiSf but sliorter pedicels, and Elmer 

 'No. 3535, from the same locality, resembles typical C. rigidus^ but 

 has almost entire leaves. Trelease* considers the plant figured in 

 Bot- Mag. t. 46G0 as a form of C, rigidus, and this form bridges 

 over the gap between typical rigidus and var. grandijoliuSy which 

 has a very distinct facies. 



The illustration of C. rigidus given by Lindley and Paxtont 

 resembles var. pallens rather than the type, which suggests that 

 there may have been a considerable amount of variation in the 

 plants of C. rigidus raised by the Horticultural Society from 



Hartweg's seed. 



T. A. s. 



XXXVni.— IBURU AND FUNDI, TWO CEREALS OF 



UPPER GUINEA. 



(JDigitaria Iburua; D. c.vilis.) 



0. Staff. 



Iburu. In Dudgeon's " The Agricultural and Forest Products 

 of British West Africa " (1911), p. 149, a cereal, called " Iboru," 

 is mentioned as Leiiig grown in Nortlieru Nigeria in the fieldfi 

 along with millet. It is also quoted in the llcport on the Agri- 

 cultural Department for 1912, Northern Isigeria, as a "cereal" 

 (a small millet) receiving " a great deal of attention *' at Zaria. 

 No descrijition is given nor is it referred to a definite species or 

 genus of grasses. Quite recently, however, specimens of Iburu 

 were received from Mr. Lamb with a note that the grass was sown 

 in rows as a field crop in the Hausa States, The specimens had 

 heen obtained at Zaria, and were numbered 54. The grass belongs 

 to the genus Digitaria, and resembles V. ea-ilis, Siapi (Paspaluin 

 exile, Kippist) another small grained cereal of West Africa, its 

 botanical affinity is, however, with D. temata, Stapf {Pamcum 

 ternatuvi, Hochst.), from which it can easily be distinguished ly 

 its crowded, closely imbricate spikelets, which are at the same 

 time quite glabrous and slightly larger. From Z> exihs li differs 

 likewise in the packed arrangement of the spikelets and also m 

 the angular, scaBrid (not terete, smooth and disk-tipped) pedicels 

 and the short, very delicate upper glume. The grains of Iburu 

 separate fairi; reaSily from the surrounding husks ^^^P^ P^^;:^,^^^ 

 is applied, and those of the sample received are pure wh te They 

 weigh in heir husks on the average 0-7 mgr so that o er 40,000 

 go to one ounce. As one raceme may contain as many as 200 

 spikelets, a single head may yield between 1,000 ^f ^ ^00 g^ra ms 

 . As the gras^ has not been described so far, a full tecbnical 

 description is given herewith. 



* A. Gi-a3-7syn. Fl. N. Am. vol. i. )>art 1. p. 417. 

 t Paxfcon's Flower Garden, vol. i. p. ih bg. oi. 



