Digitaria .] 
CLVil. GrRAMINEJE (Stapf). 
485 
the rather loosely hairy cataphylls. Culms erect or slightly genicu- 
late below, abotit 6-noded, simple or branched from 1 or 2 of the 
lower nodes, slender, glabrous, collapsing and grooved when dry. 
Leaf-sheaths moderately tight, those embracing a branch slipping 
off the culm, thin, strongly striate, glabrous or sparingly hairy 
(the uppermost) to densely and softly hirsute, hairs spreading, 
tubercle-based ; ligules membranous, truncate, up to 1 lin. long, 
glabrous or dorsally pubescent ; blades linear-lanceolate from a 
rounded base, tapering to a fine point, up to 5 in. by 7 lin. , the lowest 
often much shorter, flat, flaccid, more or less loosely pubescent, 
ultimately glabrescent above, margins narrowly cartilaginous, 
scabrid, midrib very slender, whitish, nerves very numerous and 
close, the primary hardly standing out from the rest. Racemes up 
to 15, sessile on a slender common rhachis (2-4 in. long, terete and 
smooth below and angular and rough above), the lowest in scanty 
false whorls or pairs, the others singly, subfastigiate, up to 4 in. 
long, spreading or oblique, very slender, greenish ; rhachis filiform, 
straight or nearly so, triquetrous, y-J lin. wide, pale with some 
very long extremely fine spreading hairs, angles narrowly marginate, 
scabrid, internodes 2-3 lin. long ; pedicels 2-nate, finely filiform, 
angular, scaberulous, one very short, the other 1-2 lin. long. Spike- 
lets loosely appressed, rather scattered, oblong, acute, about 1 lin. 
long, pale greenish, apparently quite glabrous. Lower glume a minute 
ovate membranous scale —-Jim. long ; upper thin, oblong-lanceolate, 
acute, | lin. long, 3-nerved, with fine dense lines of hairs (^ lin. long) 
between the nerves and along the margins. Lower floret in outline 
and size corresponding to the spikelet : valve thin, finely 7-nerved, 
with fine lines of hairs between the inner side-nerves (of each half) 
and along the margins, hairs very fine, thin-walled with blunt tips, 
shorter than those of the upper glume ; valvule and lodicules 
microscopic. Upper floret as long as the spikelet, oblong-lanceolate, 
acutely subacuminate, thinly chartaceous, margins of valve distant 
in flower. Anthers J lin. long. 
Lower Guinea. Angola : on the banks of small streams in clearings of dense 
forest at Gran j a San Luiz near Cazengo, Pearson , 2333 ! 
7. D. Perrottetii^ Stapf. Annual, 2-3 ft. high. Culms fascicled, 
erect or subgeniculate to prostrate and rooting at the base, 4-6- 
no ded, simple or sparingly branched from the lower nodes, moderately 
slender, terete, glabrous, very smooth ; lower stem-nodes mostly 
swollen. Leaf-sheaths loose, thin, finely striate, glabrous, the lower 
withering away ; ligules reduced to a glabrous membranous rim ; 
blades lanceolate to linear -lanceolate from a broad subcordate more 
or less clasping base, acuminate, 1J-4 in. by 4-9 lin., green, thin 
and flaccid, glabrous, smooth except at the slightly rough often 
crisped margins, midrib fine, lateral nerves very numerous, very 
fine and close. Racemes numerous in a succession of 6 or more whorls 
