181 



Genus 49. DIGITARIA. Finger Grass. 



Gen. Char. Inflorescence an umbellate or racemose cluster of 

 spreading, linear spikes. Spikelets unequally pedicellated, in 

 pairs on one side of the flattened rachis, dorsally compressed, one- 

 flowered, with an inferior rudiment of a second. Glumes two ; 

 the lower or outer one usually very small, or even obsolete ; the 

 upper one three-veined. Paleae, of the upper or fertile flower, 

 two ; eventually hardening around and inclosing the caryopsis. 

 Styles distinct. Barren flower almost as large as the fertile one. 



Named from the Latin digitus, a finger, in allusion to the finger-like 

 arrangement of the spikes of inflorescence. 



A genus; of annual grasses chiefly, very widely distributed in the 

 warmer regions of both hemispheres. The British species are only 

 accidental intruders as weeds of cultivation. With 'the exception of 

 D. sanguinalis, cultivated for the use of its seeds in some parts of 

 Germany, these grasses are not of any agricultural value. 



Digitaria was originally confounded by Linnaeus, like Cynodon, 

 Setaria, &c., with his unwieldy and diversified genus Panicum, from 

 which it is at once distinguished by the remarkable form of the 

 inflorescence : in this respect it approaches Cynodon, but comparison of 

 the above generic characters will prevent the possibility of mistake. 

 It should be observed, that the rudiment of the second flower in each 

 spikelet is a very conspicuous object, consisting of a large flat, five- 

 veined palea, often equalling in size the upper glume, and very unlike 

 the simple clavate or spathulate hair which represents it in the fore- 

 going genus, Cynodon. 



DiGiTAEiA SANGUINALIS. Hairy Finger Grass. Plate CXLIII. 



Clustered spikes three to six or more, linear, spreading. Kachis 

 flattened, flexuose, the margins minutely serrulate. Spikelets oblong- 

 lanceolate. Lower glume minute, very acute ; upper one lanceolate, 

 three-veined. Culm creeping and branching at the base. Leaves and 

 sheaths hairy. 



Digitaria sanguinalis, Scopoli. E. B. ed. 2. 189. Most modern Eng- 

 lish botanists. Panicum sanguinale, Linmsus. E. B. 849. 

 Withering, Bentham. Syntherisma vulgare, Schrader. 



Occasionally met with in old garden ground in a silty or sandy soil. 

 About forty years since, both this and the next species, D. hwnifusa, 

 grew most abundantly in the asparagus beds of the Battersea market 

 gardens; but I have never found it elsewhere, unless in living 

 botanical collections. Mr. Borrer, as quoted by the authors of the 

 ' British Flora,' considers that the other native habitats given for the 



