466 
CL VII. GRAMINEJE (Stapf). 
[ Digitaria . 
author was supposed to be this species, is certainly distinct and apparently 
D. pruriens, Biise. Welwitsch, 2710, represents a very robust state with 
unusually long spikelets (up to over 2 lin.). It was described as var. gigantea 
by Rendle in Cat. Afr. PI. Welw. ii. 163. The spikelets correspond very nearly 
to those figured for D. decipiens by Figari and De Notaris. These authors 
also describe and figure a D. varidbilis, l.c. 357, t. 23, of which they say that it 
approaches very closely to D. decipiens , but has relatively broader and shorter 
spikelets, with the upper glume pubescent only along the margins, and has 
less acute angles to the rhachis. They describe it as “ perennans.” I consider 
it to be typical P. debilis. 
Used as horse fodder in North Nigeria and known there as Harikia ” 
(Dalziel). 
34. B. maniculata, Stapf. Annual, long (2 ft.) trailing on the 
ground, rooting at and throwing up flowering culms (1-1J ft. high) 
from the very numerous nodes. Culms very slender, terete, glabrous, 
internodes of the trailing portion to over 25, about 1 lin. long, 
exserted or bared by the slipping off of the sheaths, of the ascending 
flowering branches 12 or more, the lower 8-10 about J in. long, as 
long as the sheaths and tightly clasped by them, the uppermost 
long-exserted, 3-4 in. long, the longer of the flowering branches or 
culms rooting at and branched again from the lower internodes and 
sometimes with arrested leafy branches higher, up. Leaf -sheaths 
terete, firm, particularly those of the flowering culms, glabrous and 
smooth or here and there with a few spreading hairs, very finely 
and closely striate ; ligules membranous, very short, truncate ; 
blades lanceolate, tapering almost from the base to an acute point, 
f-l| in. by 1| lin., rigid, almost pungent, glabrous and smooth (also 
along the margins) or with a few long tubercle-based cilia towards 
the base, glaucous, sometimes with a tinge of purple. Racemes 
2-nate, sessile, the lower with a short, the upper with a longer (J-J in.) 
filiform bare base, erect or oblique, straight, very slender, 1-2J in. 
long, Avh it ish -green ; rhachis very slender, slightly wavy or almost 
straight, flat, f-§ lin. wide, quite smooth, margins at first incurved, 
at length more or less recurved between the nodes, these about' 
1 J-2 lin. apart ; pedicels 2-nate, one very short or almost completely 
suppressed, the other filiform, or more or less compressed, semi- 
lunar in cross-section, with a minute discoid tip, about 1 lin. long, 
smooth. Spikelets tightly appressed, not imbricate, lanceolate- 
oblong, shortly acuminate, about 1 lin. by J lin., pale green, white- 
silky, often blue or lilac at the base. Lower glume a broad rounded 
or truncate hyaline white, lilac or bright blue scale J lin. long, tightly 
appressed to the spikelet and clasping it with the narrowly indexed 
margins or quite flat ; upper glume narrowly oblong, acuminate, 
as long as the spikelet, delicate, 5-nerved, with dense lines of hairs 
between the nerves and along the margins, hairs much longer towards 
the tips and exceeding them, very fine, minutely papillose, the upper 
usually doubled back on themselves, gathered in a point like that of 
a painter’s brush. Lower floret : valve oblong, acutely acuminate, 
