Digitaria.'] 
CL VII. GRAMINE JE (Stapf). 
467 
as long as the spikelef, thin, pale, 7-nerved, with lines of hairs between 
the inner side-nerves (of each half) and along the margins and also 
with a dense large tuft of hairs on each side at the base, these tufts 
protruding as a dense snow-white fluffy fringe from underneath 
the cuff-like lower glume, hairs as in the upper glume but rather 
finer and the knob-like papillae very marked, those of the tufts 
doubled up, over § lin. long (expanded), the others shoit ; valvule and 
lodicules microscopic. Upper floret oblong-lanceolate, acutely 
acuminate, almost as long as the spikelet, pale, thinly chartaceous, 
the hyaline margins of the valve meeting or overlapping to below 
the middle. Anthers \ lin. long. 
Lower Guinea. Belgian Congo : Stanley Pool District ; on sandbanks 
near Chenul, Vanderyst, 5177 ! 5179 ! 
AVlien the cuff -like lower glume is blue or lilac the contrast between it and the 
snow-white fringe of hairs protruding from underneath is very pleasing and 
striking. The diameter of the hairs is, excluding the papillae, 3-5 /x at the base 
and 2-3 p near the tips, and including the papillae 4-6 and 3-4. /x respectively, 
The doubling back of the hairs is very singular. Possibly they spread out on 
maturing, when they would make a perfect parachute. 
35. D. angolensis, Rendie in Gat. Aft. PL Welw. ii. 165. Annual, 
up to 2 ft. high. Culms eiect or ascending from a slender genicu- 
late base, many-noded, sparingly branched below, glabrous. Leaf- 
sheaths loose, thin, slightly keeled upwards, slipping oft' the culm, 
glabrous or hairy on the keel ; ligules brown, scarious, rounded- 
ovate, up to over 1 lin. long, glabrous ; blades linear, slightly 
narrowed downwards, tapering to an acute point, 5-7 in. by up to 
4 lin. wide, flat, glabrous, smooth except along the rough cartilaginous 
and often crisped margins, midrib slender, but dis'tinct and promi- 
nent below, primary lateral nerves about 4-5 on each side, very slender 
and rather distant. Itacemes about 8, digitate on a short common 
axis, slender, suboblique, somewhat loose, 5 in. long ; rhachis very 
slender, triquetrous, up to \ lin. wide, angles scabrid ; pedicels 
2-4-nate, very finely filiform, subterete or somewhat compressed 
and slightly angular, almost smooth, the longest up to 2 lin. long 
and flexuous. Spikelets oblong, acute to subacute, slightly over 1 lin. 
long, pale, whitish-silky. Lower glume a minute very delicate 
hyaline truncate scale ; upper oblong, acute, as long as but slightly 
narrower than the spikelet, very thin, very finely 5-nerved with the 
lateral nerves very close, delicately hairy all over, hairs very fine, 
wrinkled or minutely verrucose. Lower floret corresponding in 
outline and length to the spikelet : valve thin, sub-7-nerved, densely 
silky from between the inner side-nerves and the margins, hairs as 
in the upper glume, about § lin. long ; valvule and lodicules minute. 
Upper floret oblong, acute, as long as the spikelet, pale, thinly char- 
taceous, margins of valve meeting. — Panicum angolense, K. Schum. 
in Just, Jahresb. 1899, i. 457. 
