DIGITARIA, LINN. 



Spikelets lanceolate to elliptic-oblong, flat in front, convex on the back, tail- 

 ing entire from the pedicels, usually 2-3-nate, and pedicelled on the triquetrous or 

 ■dilated rhachis of very slender and usually spiciform racemes or false spikes ; lower 

 floret laari'en reduced to the valve and a very minute rudimentary pale ; upper 

 perfect. Pale of \ipper floret subequal to the valve, 2-nerved, of the same texture. 

 Lodicules 2, minute, broadly cuneate. Stamens 3. Styles distinct ; stigmas 

 laterally exserted near the tip of the floret. Grain tightly enclosed by tlie slightly 

 hardened rigid valve and pale, oblong, slightly dorsally compressed ; hilum basal, 

 punctiform ; embryo less than half the size of the grain. 



PLATE 136. 



DlGlTAEIA MONODACTYLA (Stapf, Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 373). 



Pekennial, compactly tufted, innovation shoots intravaglnal. — Culms very 

 slender, erect, 1-1 J foot long, glabrous, 1-2-noded above the base, simjale. 



Leaves crowded at the base. Sheaths very tight, glabrous, or scantily hairy, 

 the lower firm, persistent, at length sometimes breaking up into fibres. Ligules 

 very short, truncate. Blades setaceously convolute, filiform, 2-4 inches long, rather 

 rigid or flexuous, glabrous or scantily hairy, smooth. Racemes spikelike, solitary, 

 terminal on the long exserted culm, very slender, 2|-5 inches long ; rhachis wavy, 

 very narrow, ciliate, midrib obtuse, stout. Pedicels 2-nate, densely ciliate, unequal, 

 the longer up to f line long. 



Spikelets subimbricate, adpressed to the rhachis, the superposed ones distant 

 almost by their own length, oblong-lanceolate, up to 1^ line long, with silky and 

 adpressed hairs. Glumes, lower ; upper linear-oblong, ^ to almost 1 line long, 

 long and densely ciliate, 3-2-nerved. Valves, lotver oblong-lanceolate, subacuminate, 

 up to Ig- line long, 5-7-nerved, densely and long ciliate, particularly along the 

 marginal nerves ; upper S-nerved, subchartaceous, ovate-lanceolate, subacuminate, 

 1 line long, smooth, brown ; flaps of pale very broad below, overlapping. Anthers 

 ^ line long. 



E&Mtat : — Natal. Near Newcastle, Buchanan 181; also in Cape Colony 

 and Free State. 



Drawn from Buchanan's specimen, which is the only one in the Government 

 Herbarium. 



Digitaria has lately been separated from Panicum, of which genus it forme ^ 

 a section. 



Fig. 1, Ligule ; 2,portion of rhachis with spikelets ; 3, upper glume ; 4, lower valve, 

 front view ; 5, same, baek-viBw ; G, upper valve ; 7, pale ; 8, stigmas, stamens and lodioules. 

 Except ji(j. 1, all eHlaxfjed. 



