with 



819 



p. 6); seeds eaten made into porridge, cultivated Loko- 

 Naasarawa (Elliott, Herb. Kew) ; seed made into flour for the 

 preparation of a kind of porridge, Gambia and N. Nigeria 

 (Dudgeon, Agric. & For. Prod. W. Afr. pp. 12, 148) ; the principal 

 food of the natives, French Guinea (Pobeguin, Herb. Kew) ; 

 the taste is so pleasant that even Europeans relish it (Chevalier, 

 Mission au Senegal, p. 241). In Sierra Leone, "in preparing 

 this delicious grain for food," it is first thrown into boiling 

 water, stirred for a few minutes, the water then poured off and 

 palm-oil, butter or milk added; the Europeans and Negroes 

 also stew it with fowl, fish, or mutton, make it into a pudding 

 or milk porridge (Kew Bull. 1915, p. 384); the natives here 

 (Koinadugu District) are accustomed to plant large quantities of 

 Fundi whenever they consider the rice crop is hkely to fail 

 (Stanley, Sierra Leone Gaz. 21st Nov. 1914). 



An annual plant, about 1| ft. high. The seed is very small 

 53,000 grains to the ounce — flourishing in light soils and even 

 in rocky situations (Kew Bull. I.e.); requires comparatively 

 little moisture (Stanley, I.e.); growTi in the fields 

 and attains a height of about 2 ft. (Dudgeon, I.e. p. 148) ; sown 

 broadcast as a field crop in the Hausa States (Lamb, Herb. Kew) 

 and cultivated largely by the Pagan tribes on the Bauchi Plateau 

 at an altitude of 4000 ft., where the soO is for the most part poor 

 and sandy (Kew Bull. I.e.). A plot 70 ft. by 70 ft. in Nassarawa 

 Province, sown broadcast with " Atcha Grain," with 12 lb. 

 of seed, May 26th and harvested Sept. 26th, yielded 361 lb. of 

 grain in good condition (Creig, Nig. Gaz. 2nd April, 1914, p. 721) ; 

 but a yield of only 51 lb. per acre is reported (Rae, Ann, Rep. 

 'Dept. Agric. N. Nigeria, 1914, p. 13). In Sierra Leone, sown 

 'in May and June, the grass ripens in September growing to 

 the height of about 18 in., it is reaped with hooked knives, tied 

 up into small sheaves and placed in a dry situation in the huts ; 

 the grain is trodden out with the feet, then parched or dried in 

 the sun to facilitate removal of the chaff by pounding — which 

 is done in wooden mortars — afterwards being winnowed with 

 a kind of cane fanner on mats (Kew BuU. I.e. p. 383). 



Various yields of " Acha " — 150 lb. per acre for 5 years under 



cultivation in stony soil, 156 lb. for 3 years in fight sandy soil 



and 145 lb. of grain per acre for 7 years in low lying good soil, 



have been obtained in the Zuru Sakaba Division, N. Nigeria 



(Boyd, Kontagora Province, N. Nig. Gaz. June 30th 1913, 

 Suppl. p. 244). 



Re.f. — ^" Sur une Graminee du Soudan,"- Dybowski, in Compt. 



Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris cxxvi. 1898', pp. 771-772. " Culture 



du Fonio dans les Vallees du Senegal et du Hant-Nifrpr. Diima.«5. 



in L Ag] 

 "Fundi 



Digitaria gayana, Stapf; Fl. Trop. Afr. IX. p. 449. [Panicum 



gayanum, Kunth, Rev. Gram. i. p. 239.] 



III. — Kunth, Rev. Gram. i. t. 31 {Panicum gayanum). 



