480 
CL VII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf), 
[ Digitaria . 
ovate, acute or obtuse, up to J lin. long, nerveless ; upper lanceolate, 
acute, about 1 lin. long, 3-nerved, with 4 lines of very fine usually 
appressed hairs. Lower floret : valve oblong- or ovate-lanceolate, 
acute, 7-nerved, middle- and side-nerves (except the outermost) 
prominent, lines of usually appressed dense long very fine obtuse hairs 
between the inner side-nerves (of each half) and along the margins ; 
valvule a hyaline scale up to 4 lin. long or 0 ; lodicules minute. 
Upper floret oblong, shortly and acutely acuminate, chartaceous, 
whitish to pale slate-colour. ,Anthers § lin. long. Grain oblong, 
broad elliptic in cross section, 1 lin. by lin. ; scutellum elliptic, 
half the length of the grain. — Stapf in Dyer, FI. Cap. vii. 375 ; Wood, 
Natal PI. t. 137 ; Rendle in Journ. Linn. Soc. Bot. xl. 227. D. sp., 
Burchell, Trav. S. Afr. i. 537. Panicum commutatum , Nees in 
Linnsea, vii. 274 ; FI. Afr. Austr. 25 (excl. most synonyms) ; not of 
Nees in Wight & Arn. Glum. Ind. Or. ined. no. 3 ; Durand & Schinz, 
Consp. FI. Afr. v. 743 (partly) : Eyles in Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Afr. 
v. 299 ? 
Mozambique Distr. Portuguese East Africa : Beira, Rogers, 4545 ! Swynner- 
ton, 1588 ! Lower Buzi Biver, Swynnerton, 1586. Rhodesia : Bechuanaland ; 
Mahalapye, Rogers, 6101 ! Mochudi, Rogers, 6595 ! Leshumo Valley, Holuh\ 
Transvaal : Limvuba River, Nelson, 66 ! 
Common throughout the eastern half of South Africa, rare in the west (Great 
Namaqualand to Piquetberg). Said to be good fodder for cattle ( Wood, l.c.). 
The only mature grains I have seen were in a. specimen from Springbok Flats 
( Burtt Davy , 1 122) which moreover is interesting on account of the rigid spread- 
ing double fringes of coarse yellowish hairs (-| lin. long) from the spaces between 
the inner lateral nerves and of white soft hairs from the margins (§ lin. long). 
Similar spreading soft marginal hairs occur in some of Pearson’s specimens from 
the Great Karasberg (no. 8516), but the stiff yellow hairs which much resemble 
the “cilia” of the European “ Digitaria ciliaris ” were not observed in any 
other specimen. The amount and the length of the pubescence of the lower 
floret vary to an astonishing degree not only in the different individuals but in 
the same raceme, the hairs being either appressed or more or less loose, and, 
when they are short and lie close to the surface of the valve, the latter may seem 
to be glabrous. When the hairs in the space inside the inner nerve-pairs are 
loose and fluffy the glabrous median portion between them may appear deeply 
sunk below the level of the flanks although in reality it is not so. 
2. D. milanjiana^^a^. Perennial, loosely csespitose from rather 
slender descending or creeping rhizomes, stoloniferous ; stolons 
covered with short ovate obtuse strongly nerved and appressedly 
hairy or glabrescent thin cataphylls, sometimes rather long and 
branching. Culms erect or subgeniculate or gently ascending, 
1 to over 3 ft. high, slender to stout, glabrous, basal internodes often 
numerous, followed by 2 or 4 (rarely more) elongated internodes, 
the terminal by far the longest. Leaves usually numerous at the 
base, thin, subherbaceous, rather loose, the lower generally keeled 
and often distinctly laterally compressed, short or long, glabrous 
or hirsute to villous, the upper mostly glabrous or nearly so, more 
terete and tight ; ligules scarious, truncate, crenulate, glabrous, 
