I 
Digitaria .] clvii. gramine^j (Stapf). 439 
Dowson, 187 ! Linton, 1 ! Ndara; Taita Mountains, in acacia scrub, Gregory ! 
Ngomeni ; E. Angalora Mountains, Gregory ! 
Lower Guinea. Gaboon, Thollon ! French Congo : Libreville, Thollon, 170 ! 
Belgian Congo : Lower Congo, Smith ! Boma, Hens, A. 320 ! Stanley Pool 
District; Mokaba, Vanderyst, 3892! Leopoldville, Gilletl Angola : Golungo 
Alto, in woody meadows near Bumbo and Sanga, Welwitsck, 7184 ! in cotton 
fields near Sange, Welwitsch, 7173 ! Benguella ; Fort Princeza Amelia, Goss- 
weiler, 2010 ! Cazengo, Gossweiler, 5739 ! 
Mozambique Distr. Zanzibar, Kirk ! Last ! German East Africa : Tanga, 
Volhens, 79! Marangu, Volhens, 643! Amboni, Holst, 2774! Nyasaland : 
dried-up bed of Karonga River, Scott ! Namasi, Cameron, 19 ! near Blantyre, 
Scott ! Portuguese East Africa : Msalue River, Allen, 137 ! Rhodesia : Urutali, 
Sawer, 25 ! Gazaland ; near Chirinda, Swynnerton, 964 ! 
Also in Natal, the Mascarenes and tropical America. Elsewhere (India, 
Malaya) probably introduced. Much used for feeding horses and known as 
“ Eran ” in Lagos ( Dawodu ) ; considered as good fodder in Somaliland ( Wel- 
witsch, Appleton). 
The earliest specific epithet appears to be “ digitata ” ( Milium digitatum, 
Sw., hence Hitchcock’s combination Syntherisma digitata), but this is not avail- 
able owing to D. digitata, Biise. There is little doubt that the numerous 
localities given by Th. & Hel. Durand in their Sylloge under Panicum sanguinale 
p. 634) and the corresponding references to the Congo literature are mostly, 
if not altogether, referable to this species. The localities as far as not quoted 
above are from the following districts of the Belgian Congo : Cataractes, 
Equateur, Bangala, Uele, Kasai and Katanga. 
9. D. marginata, Link, Hort. Berol. i. 229. Annual, lto over 2 ft. 
high. Culms tufted, usually ascending from a geniculate or pros- 
trate and then often rooting base, simple or more often branched 
from the lower nodes, glabrous, few- to many-noded, upper node 
by far the longest and at length long-exserted. Leaf-sheaths thin, 
subherbaceous, loose, glabrous or more or less beset with spreading 
tubercle-based hairs which may be gathered at the base into a loose 
beard ; ligules truncate, membranous, up to over J lin. long ; blades 
linear-lanceolate to linear from a slightly contracted and rounded 
base, tapering to a slender acute point, up to 5 in. by 2-4 lin., flat, 
flaccid, glabrous or sparingly hairy particularly towards the mouth, 
margins finely cartilaginous, rough and often crisp, midrib very 
slender, whitish, lateral nerves numerous, the primary hardly stand- 
ing out from the rest. Racemes mostly 4-9, sessile, subdigitate, 
solitary or 2-3-nate on a short angular scaberulous common axis, 
erect or spreading, rather slender, strict or slightly flexuous, 2-6 in. 
long, often finely pubescent at the base ; rhachis almost straight, 
triquetrous, ™-| (rarely J) lin. wide, lateral angles winged, her- 
baceous, scabrid, internodes up to over 1 lin. long ; pedicels 2-nate, 
one very short, the other up to f lin. long, angular, scabrid. Spike- 
lets appressed, not or only slightly imbricate, lanceolate, acutely 
acuminate, 1-1J lin. long, pale greenish, rarely tinged with purple, 
variously hairy, rarely quit v e glabrous. Lower glume an ovate obtuse 
to subacute membranous scale usually not over J- lin. long, sometimes 
obsolete or quite suppressed ; upper ovate-lanceolate, acute, equalling 
or more often considerably exceeding half of the upper floret, rarely 
