Digitarici .] 
CLVII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
468 
finely hirsute or all or at least the uppermost glabrous except at the 
dark broad (2 lin.) hispidly bearded nodes ; ligules membranous, 
truncate, crenulate, up to 2 lin. long ; blades linear, long-tapering 
to a fine point, 3-4 in. by 1J-2 lin., flat, flaccid, green, glabrous or 
sparingly hairy, margins cartilaginous, scaberulous- towards the tips, 
otherwise smooth, midrib very slender, pale, primary lateral nerves 
up to 6 on each side, slightly raised above. Racemes very numerous, 
usually over 20, sessile, fastigiate on a slender angular common axis 
up to 3 in. long, overtopping it by 2-3 in., mostly solitary and bearing 
spikelets from the base or from near it, very slender, mostly suberect, 
rarely spreading, up to 4 rarely 5 in. long, flexuous, loose, pale green 
or tinged with purple ; rhachis filiform, triquetrous, lin. wide, 
with scattered very fine long spreading hairs in the lower part, 
internodes about 1 lin. long, angles very finely marginate, scaberulous; 
pedicels 2-nate, finely filiform, very unequal, the longer § lin. long, 
angular, minutely scaberulous. Spikelets loosely appressed, hardly 
imbricate even when young, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, acute, about 
f-§ lin. by J lin., apparently glabrous. Lower glume a minute 
hyaline scale or 0 ; upper oblong, acute, as long as the spikelet, 
very thin, finely 5-nerved, with 4 very fine lines of hairs (the space 
inside the submarginal nerve glabrous), hairs very delicate with 
recurved or circinate tips, ^ lin. long. Lower floret : valve very 
thin, corresponding in shape and size to the spikelet, prominently 
but finely 7-nerved, nerves equidistant, with a delicate appressed 
fringe of hairs along the margins and a fine often imperfect line 
between the 2 inner lateral nerves (of each half) or there sometimes 
quite glabrous ; valvule and lodicules microscopic. Upper floret 
lanceolate-oblong, acutely acuminate, as long as the spikelet, pale 
olive- or greyish-green, thinly chartaceous, margins of valve at 
length distant. Anthers J lin. long. Grain ellipsoid, white, \ lin. 
long. — • Panicum nigritianum, var., Hack, in Oest. Bot. Zeitschr. 
1901, 293. 
Lower Guinea. Belgian Congo : Stanley Pool District ; Mokaba, Vanderyst, 
3890 ! Muschie, Vanderyst, 3919 ! islands in Stanley Pool, Buettner. 
Kwango District; sandbanks in the Kwilu River, Vanderyst , 2017 partly! 
between Lutschima and Katschaka, Vanderyst, 3807 partly ! 
Very near to D. nigritiana, Stapf, but differing in the broad bearded nodes, 
hairy sheaths and short blades. The spikelets are practically indistinguish- 
able. There is a much battered specimen in the Kew collection communicated 
by Sir W. MacGregor from Lagos (no. 157 partly) which has the bearded nodes 
of D. polybotrya with which it agrees in the structure of the spikelets, but from 
which it differs in their whitish colour, fewer racemes, greater number of nodes, 
and more hairy leaves. 
32. D. nigritiana A Stapf. Annual, over 2J ft. high. Culms slender, 
terete, glabrous, very smooth, few-noded, simple or branched from 
the lower nodes (Hackel). Leaf -sheaths terete, glabrous, smooth, 
closely striate, nodes quite glabrous ; ligules oblong-obtuse, scarious, 
