374 
FLOBA OF ADEN . 
scattered pilose hairs. Leaves flat, linear, elongate, long acuminate, 
flaccid, scabrous on the margins ; ligule ciliate. 
Panicle pauciradiate ; radii remote, solitary, 1-3 inches long, patent 
rhachis of radii sub triquetrous, scabrous on the angles and sparingly 
pilose. Spikelets mostly solitary, short-pedicellate ; inferior glume less 
than half the length of the spikelet, broadly ovate, 1-nerved, a little 
remote from the superior glume which is as long as the spikelet and 5- 
nerved ; the neuter flowers often bivalved, the lower valve as long as the 
superior glume and 5-nerved ; both valves of hermaphrodite flowers 
deeply rugulose. 
Locality : — Aden (Bird wood). 
Distribution Abyssinia, Eritrea. 
6. Digitaria Rich. 
Annual or perennial grasses. Leaves linear or lanceolate. Spikelets 
usually 2-3-nate, in digitate or racemose spikes, jointed on the pedicel, 
but not thickened at the base ; lower floret barren, reduced to the floral 
glume and a very minute palea ; upper floret hermaphrodite. Glumes 
very dissimilar, normally 4 ; the lower involucral glume usually hyaline, 
sometimes absent or present in the same species ; the upper involucral 
glume membranous, 1-5-nerved or uerveless ; floral glumes equal or 
subequal, the lower like the upper involucral glume, usually 7-9-nerved, 
the nerves close, parallel, straight, prominent ; upper floral glume 
chartaceous or subchartaceous, usually 3-nerved. Palea of upper floret 
s>ubequal to the glume, and of same texture, 2-nerved. Lodicules 2, 
minute, broadly cuneate. Stamens 8. Styles distinct ; stigmas plumose, 
laterally exserted near the apex of the floret. 
Grain oblong, slightly dorsally compressed, free, but tightly enclosed 
between the hardened glume and the palea. 
Species about 50. 
Distribution : — Mostly in warm parts of the Old World. 
Rigitaria pennala T. Cooke in FI. Bomb. Pres. IT, 941. 
Panicum pennatum Hochst. in Flora XXXVIII (1854) 197. 
Paspalum pennatum Hook. f. FI. Brit. Ind. VII, 16 ; Woodr. in 
Journ. Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc. XIII (1901) 488. 
Description : — Stems 2 feet long, tufted, leafy. Leaves 1-6 by 
inch, linear or linear-lanceolate, finely acuminate, glabrous or sparsely 
hairy, distantly ciliate with long, fine, bulbous-based hairs ; sheaths long, 
striate, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs ; ligule long, oblong-, 
membranous. 
