PLATE 469. 



DiGiTARiA DEBiLis, Willd. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII., p. 377). 



Nat. Order Gramineae. 



Annual. — Culms ascending from a geniculate base, scantily branched below, 1 

 to 2 feet long, glabrous, 5 or more noded, upper node by far the longest. 



Leaves glabrous or hairy ; sheaths rather thin, striate ; ligules rounded, l^- to 

 2 lines long ; blades linear from a subcordate base, tapering to a fine point, 3 to 5 

 inches by 1^ to 2|^ Hues, flat, flaccid, margins scabrid. Eacemes 3 to 10, subdigitate 

 or on a scabrid angular common axis (1 to 2 inches long), singly or the lower sub- 

 verticillate, erect or spreading, very slender, strict, 4 to 8 inches long ; rhachis 

 filiform, angular, very scabrid, internodes up to 2 lines long ; pedicels 2-nate, one 

 very short, the other up to 1 line long, fine, angular scabrid. 



Spikelets lanceolate, about IJ line long. 



GrLUMES, lower very minute, rounded, hyaline, wpijer linear-lanceolate, long 

 acuminate, exceeding the lower valve by j, strongly 7 -nerved, finely and adpressedly 

 silky between the outer nerves and along the margins. V^alves, lower oblong, shortly 

 acuminate, rather over 1 line long, strongly 7 -nerved, finely and adpressedly silky 

 between the outer nerves and along the margins ; upper subchartaceous, slightly 

 shorter than the lower, pale. Anthers f line long ; grain J line long. 



Habita,t : Natal. Umpumulo, Buchanan 202 ; and without precise locality, 

 Gerrard 693. 



Also in tropical Africa, Madagascar, and the Mediterranean countries, from 

 Algeria and South Italy to Portugal. 



Drawn from Gerrard's 693, kindly lent for the purpose by the Director of the 

 Royal Gardens and Herbarium at Kew. 



Fig 1, Upper glume ; 2, lower valve ; 3, upper valve ; 4, pale ; 5, pistil, stamens 

 and lodicules, All enlarged. 



