PLATE 142. 



DiGITARIA DIVERSTNERVIS (Stapf Fl. Cap. Vol. VII. p. 379.) 



Perennial (?). — Culms ascending from a prostrate, rooting, loosely branched 

 base, yery slender, weak, up, to, 1|- foot long, glabrous, 4-6 noded ; uppermost inter- 

 node by far the longest, long' exserted. Leaves glabrous or very sparingly hairy ; 

 sheaths thin, the lower withering ; ligules very short. Blades linear-lanceolate, 

 acute, 1-3 inches by 1|-2|- lilies, flat, flaccid, scaberulous in the upper part, margins- 

 scabrid. 



Racemes subdi-gitate, slender, erect or spreading, l|-2 inches long, minutely 

 villous at the insertion. Rhachis very narrow and wavy, triquetrous, angles- 

 scabrid, internodes up to 2 lines long. Pedicels 2-nate, one very short, the other 

 up to 1 line long, triquetrous, scaberulous. 



Spikelets oblong, acute, l^ line long, greenish, glabrous. Glumes thin^ 

 lotver hrosudlj ovate, up to f line long, 1 -nerved, or nerveless ; upper ovate, acute,. 

 1 line Idngi l-sub-3-nerved. Valves equal, lower 7-9 nerved ;. upper subchartaceous,. 

 acuminate, pale to dark brown. 



Edbitdt : — Natal! In ' woods ' near Durban, Drege; Plant 56-; McKen 10 ;. 

 Durban ^\&t, .BucJianan ; without precise locality, Gerrard, 695; 589-; Berea, 150 

 feet alt.. Wood 5923. 



Drawn from Wood's specimen, 



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

 lower valve, back ^iew ; 6, "same, front view ; 7," upper valve, front view ; 8, same, back vie\y ;. 

 9, pale, front view ; 10, same, back view ; 11, ovary, styles, stigmas, stameiis and lodicules. 

 All enlarged. 



