PLATE 138. 



DIGITARIA TERNATA (Stapf, Fl. Cap. Vol. VII. 376). 



ANNUAL. CULMS fascicled, erect from a geniculate base, slender, simple, 

 \-'l feet long, glabrous or more or less beset with fine long spreading hairs below 

 the racemes ; about 2-noded. Sheaths glabrous or scantily fimbriate at the mouth. 

 Ligules short, truncate. Blades linear-lanceolate to linear, acute, 2-9 inches by 

 3 lines, flat, flaccid, glabrous or sparingly hairy near the base. 



RACEMES 2-7, sxibdigitate, erect or spreading, very slender, strict, 2-12 inches 

 long. Rhachis very narrow, linear, up to J line broad, margins scabrid, internodes 

 about 1^ line long. Pedicels 2-3-nate, unequal, up to more than 1 line long, 

 shortly hairy towards the scarcely thickened tips. 



SPIKELETS adpressed to the rhachis, oblong-elliptic, obtuse or sub-obtuse,, 

 about 1 line long, pale. Glumes, lower ; upper very delicate, narrower and 

 shorter than the upper valve, 3-nerved, sides densely villous with clavate hairs. 

 Valves subequal ; lower prominently 5-nerved, very densely and appressedly 

 silky villous with clavate hairs ; upper chartaceous, ovate-oblong, subacute, dark 

 brown to black except the whitish hyaline margins. Anthers J line long. 



NATAL. Near Umpumulo, 2000 to 2500 feet, Buchanan 203; 205; 

 and without precise locality 77 ; Dundee, Green 83. 



Also in Abyssinia and India. 



Drawn from Green's specimen and compared with Buchanan's 203 and 205. 



Though this species is said to have no lower glume, a microscopic rudiment of 

 it may often be seen at the base of the upper one. 



In the Flora of British India this plant is described as Paspahim ternatum, 

 Hk. f, and it is said by Schimper to be a pest in cultivated fields. 



Fig. 1, Ligule : 2, rhachis with spikelets : 3, upper glume ; 4, lower valve, back view; 

 ."). same, front view ; <>. upper valve ; 7, pale ; S, ovary, style, stigmas, stamens and lodicules. 

 All 



