Digitaria .] 
CLVIL GilAMlNEiE (Stapf). 
465 
3-5 (rarely up to 8) in. long, mostly pale green in liower ; rhachis 
triquetrous, straight or wavy, lin. wide, pale, angles finely margin- 
ate, scabrid, internodes 1 or, the lower, 1| to almost 2 lin. long ; 
pedicels 2-nate, very finely filiform, angular, scabrid, the longer 
about 1 lin. long. Spikelets loosely appressed, not or obscurely 
imbricate when young, lanceolate, finely to almost caudate-acumi- 
nate, 1-1J lin. long, pale or yellowish-green, sometimes tinged with 
purple, apparently quite glabrous. Lower glume a minute hyaline 
whitish cuff -like scale, separated from thempper by a distinct inter- 
node, hence the spikelet shortly “ stipitate 55 within the lower glume ; 
upper glume very thin, lanceolate, acut ely acuminate to almost caudate, 
as long as the spikelet, 5-nerved, with a fine line of appressed hairs, 
curled at the tips and about ~Sp lin. long in each of the spaces 
between the middle nerve and the adjacent side-nerves and another 
along the margins, rarely sub-7 -nerved with a faint additional nerve 
inside the inner line of hairs. Lower floret : valve very similar 
in texture and pubescence to the upper glume, but shorter by one- 
quarter to one-third, narrowly oblong, shortly acuminate, 7-nerved, 
with lines of hairs between the inner pair of side-nerves and along 
the margins, often irregular or suppressed on one side ; valvule and 
lodicules microscopic. . Upper floret almost equalling the lower, 
lanceolate, acutely acuminate, pale or dull purplish, thinly char- 
taceous, margins of valve slightly overlapping upwards when mature. 
Anthers almost \ lin. long. Grain narrowly oblong, plano-convex, 
whitish ! lin. long ; scutellum elliptic, less than half the length of 
the grain. — Coss. & Durieu, Expl. Scient. Alger, ii. 33 ; Stapf in 
Dyer, FI. Cap. vii. 377 ; Rendle in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 163 ; 
Cheval. Sudania, 22. D. variabilis, Fig. & De Notaris in Mem. 
Acc. Torin. ser. ii. xiv. (1853), 357, t. 23. D. decipiens, Fig. & De 
Notaris, l.c. 359, t. 24. Pcmicum debile , Desf. FI. Atlanta i. 59 ; Trin. 
Panic. Gen. 117 ; Steud. Syn. PI. Glum. i. 41 ; Battand, & Trab. FI. 
Alger. (Monoc.) 131; Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 746. P.fili- 
forme , Poir. Voy. en Barb. ii. 93; not of Linn. P. reimarioides , Anderss. 
in Peters, Reise Mossamb. Bot. 547. Paspalum debile , Poir Encycl. 
v. 34 (excl. syn.) ; Fluegge, Gram. Monogr. 136 ; Kunth, Enum. i. 45. 
Upper Guinea. French Sudan : San, borders of the Bani River, Chevalier, 
1095 ! Southern Nigeria : Lagos, Foster, 7a ! Northern Nigeria : Katagum 
District, Dalziel, 254 ! Abinsi, Dalziel, 879 ! Sokoto : in meadows, Dalziel, 496 ! 
Nile Land. Cordofan and Fazokl, according to Figari and De Notaris, l.c. 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Pungo Andongo, Welwitsch, 2854 ! Calunda, 
Welwitsch, 2710! Benguella ; Fort Princeza Amelia, Cubango River, Goss- 
weiler, 1981 ! in wet places between Humpata and Huilla, 5500 ft., 
Pearson, 2607 ! 
Mozambique Distr. Portuguese East Africa : sandy moist places on the 
Lower Zambesi, Peters. Nyasaland : in marshy ground near the Umbaka 
River, Scott ! 
Also in Natal (in native gardens) and Madagascar (?) and in the Mediter- 
ranean countries from Algeria and South Italy to Portugal. Not in India. 
Paspalum sang uinale, var. debile, Hook. f. FI. Brit. Ind. vii. 16, which by its 
FL, TROP. AFR. VOL. IX. — PT. 3, 2 H 
