PLATE 140. 



DiGiTARiA HORIZONTALIS (Willd. Enum. PI. Hort. Berol. 1809. 92). Fl. Cap. Vol. 



VII. p. 378. 



Annual. — Culms ascending from a geniculate or more or less prostrate, 

 sometimes rooting branched base, slender, 1 -several feet long, glabrous, few to 

 many noded, upper internode by far the longest. 



Leaves glabrous or hairy ; sheaths thin, the lower withering ; ligules very 

 short. Blades linear-lanceolate to linear, acute or gradually tapering from below 

 the middle, 2-5 inches long by 2-4 lines wide (in the South African specimens), 

 flat, flaccid, margins scabrid. 



Racemes, 4 to many, subdigitate. or on an angular common axis of variable 

 length (one to several inches long),- singly or the lower subverticillate, erect or 

 spreading, slender, strict, lJ-6 inches long, usually villous or bearded at the base, 

 often with a few scattered, stiff", long, very fine hairs from the common axis ; 

 rhachis very narrow, usually wavy, triquetrous, lateral angles more or less winged, 

 scabrid, internodes about 1^ line long (in the South African specimens), or longer. 

 Pedicels 2-nate, one very short, the other up to f line long, triquetrous, scabrid. 



Spikelets linear-oblong, acute, f-1 line long, greenish. Glumes, lower 

 extremely minute or supressed ; upper lanceolate-oblong, equalling i-4 of the 

 upper valve, 3-nerved, with lines of extremely fine adpressed silky hairs between 

 the nerves and along the margin, or witK the marginal hairs spreading. Valves 

 equal or subequal ; lower prominently and closely 7 -nerved, with lines of extremely 

 fine adpressed silky hairs between the outer nerves and along the margins, or with 

 the marginal hairs spreading ; upper subchartaceous, acute, pale-greenish. 



Ha,bitat : — Natal. Near Durban, Drege ; Williamson 27; Umpumulo Bucha- 

 nan, 202; 204. 



Drawn from Buchanan's No. 204, the specimen being in bad condition, and 

 neither stamens nor stigmas being present. 



Fig. 1, Ligule ; 2, rhachis with 2-nate pedicels ; 3, upper glume ; 4, lower valve ; 5, 

 upper valve, front view ; 6, same, back view ; 7, pale. All enlarged. 



