DIGITAEIA HUMIFUSA. 221 



DIGITARIA HUMIFUSA. 



PERSOON. SMITH. PARNELL. HOOKER AND ARNOTT. BABINGTON. 

 LINDLEY. DEAKIN. 



PLATE LXXIII. 



Syntherisma glabrum, SCHRADER. 



Panicum glabrum, KOCH. GAUDIN. 



MACREIGHT. KUNTH. 



humifusum, KUNTH. 



sanguinale, POLLICH. 



Digitaria filiformis, KOEL. 



The Glabrous Finger Grass. 

 Digitaria From a finger. Humifusa Spreading on the ground. 



A RARE Grass, having no agricultural merits. Found on sandy 

 -j_ soil in Yorkshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, and Sussex. 



A native also of France, Italy, Switzerland, Prussia, Holland, and 

 Belgium. 



Stem ascending, polished, striated, having four somewhat broad, 

 brief, flat leaves, with smooth striated sheaths; upper one extending 

 considerably beyond its leaf. Joints three. Inflorescence digitate, 

 lengthy, linear, and from two to four-branched. Spikelets oval, dorsally 

 compressed, of two glumes and one floret; glumes equal, hirsute, and 

 five-ribbed; inner one deep purple, the others only purplish. Floret 

 of same length as glumes reddish purple, of two almost equal palese, 

 striated and polished. Filaments three; anthers brief, violet-coloured, 

 and cloven at either extremity. Styles two, slender. Stigmas brief, 

 plumose, and purplish. Length from four to nine inches. Root annual 

 and fibrous. 



Flowers in July and August, and ripens its seed in September. 



The specimen for illustration was gathered at Weybridge, Surrey, 

 by Mr. Joseph Sidebotham, of Manchester. 



