PLATE 470. 



DiGiTARiA FLACCIDA, Stapf. (Fl. Cap., Vol. VII. p. 382). 



Nat. Order Graminea5. 



CcLiis very slender, over 1 foot long ; uppermost sheath long, narrow, with a 

 rudimentary blade, glabrous. Eacemes simple or compound below, silky villous, 3 to 

 7 lines long, on the slender branches o£ a narrow, flaccid, scantily branched panicle, 

 2 to 3 inches long ; rhachis finely filiform, triquetrous, smooth, internodes f to IJ 

 line long. 



Spikelets 2-nate or the lowest on 3-4 spiculate short branchlets, oblong, sub- 

 acute, 2 to 1| line long, unequally pedicelled, pedicels finely filiform, smooth and 

 glabrous or with very few rigid hairs near the discoid tips. 



Glujies, loicer delicately hyaline, ovate, obtuse, up to j line long, nerveless, 

 glabrous or scantily hairy ; upijer lanceolate-oblong, subacute, 1 line long, 3-nerved, 

 densely and long villous, margins delicately hyaline, rather broad. Valves, hnrer oblong, 

 subacute, IJ to almost 2 lines long, 7-nerved, glabrous along the middle nerve, densely 

 villous on the sides, particularly along the upper edge of the inflexed margins, hairs 

 acute, somewhat rigid, often purplish, exceeding the valve ; upper subchartaceous, 

 oblong, acuminate, up to 1 J line long. 



EsibitSit : Natal. Umsinga and base of Biggarsberg, Buchanan 88. 



This species is remarkable for having two short, nerved, cuneate lodicules in the 

 lower floret, although the pale itself is extremely reduced and scarcely exceeds them. 

 I do not know any other similar case in the genus. — (Note by Dr. Stapf). 



I 



No specimen of this grass was in our Herbarium, but the Director of the Royal 

 Gardens at Kew kindly allowed a drawing of it to be made by Miss Smith, which our 

 artist, Miss Franks, has copied. 



Fig 1, Rhachis and spikelets ; 2, upper glume ; 3, lower valve ; 4, pale and lodicules ; 5, 

 upper glume and pale ; 6, pistil and lodicules, All enlartjed. 



