468 cl vn. GRAMiNEiE (Stapf). [ Digitaria . 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Pungo Andongo ; in damp meadows near Sansa- 
manda, Welwitsch, 2790 ! 
36. D. argyrotricha, Ghiov. in Result. Scient. Miss. Stefanini- 
Paoli, i. 183. Annual. Culms tufted, erect from a slightly 
geniculate base, sparingly branched below, glabrous, slender, 
4-5-noded, the first internodes very short and sheathed all along, 
the uppermost long-exserted. Leaf -sheaths rather tight or somewhat 
loose, glabrous or the lower more usually ciliate along the margins 
and on the keel-nerve, rarely loosely hairy all over ; ligules short, 
truncate, denticulate ; blades lanceolate to linear, acutely acuminate, 
1- 4 in. by 2-4 (rarely 1) lin., obliquely spreading, flat, soft, glaucous, 
glabrous, rarely sparingly and very finely hairy, midrib and primary 
lateral nerves very fine, margins cartilaginous, scaberulous, often 
crisp. Racemes 2 or 3, sessile, digitate, slender, 3 to over 6 in. long, 
erect or oblique, white-silky on the face, green on the back ; rhachis 
flat, straight, J-J lin. wide, green, margins scabrid, midrib whitish, 
convex, smooth and about equally wide on both sides ; pedicels 
2- or 3-nate or solitary upwards, flexuous, terete with discoid tips, 
whitish, smooth, the longest up to 1 lin. long, adnate downwards. 
Spikelets appressed, subimbricate, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 
from not quite f to over 1 lin. long (excluding the terminal tuft of 
hairs), long and densely white-silky. Lower glume a delicate cuff- 
like membrane, lin. long, soon breaking up and disappearing ; 
upper delicate, lanceolate, acute, as long as the spikelet, sub-5-nerved, 
densely covered with fine shaggy or appressed silky hairs up to | lin. 
long, thin-walled or somewhat thick-walled and mostly wrinkled 
upwards. Lower floret : valve hyaline, oblong-lanceolate, acute, 
as long as the spikelet, 5-nerved, nerves fine, equidistant, usually 
obscure owing to the copious shaggy indumentum which consists of 
long hairs (like those of the upper glume up to over J lin. long) and is 
produced beyond the tips into a thick silky pointed brush up to J lin. 
long, usually snow-white ; valvule and lodicules microscopic. Upper 
floret lanceolate, acutely acuminate,! lin. by | lin., slightly shorter than 
the spikelet (apart from the apical tuft of hairs), pale brown, thinly 
chartaceous, margins almost contiguous at maturity except at the 
base. Grain elliptic, dorsally more or less compressed, J lin. by over 
\ lin., white ; scutellum broad-elliptic, obscurely marked off, about £ 
the length of the grain. — Panicum argyrotnchum , Anderss. in Peters, 
Reise Mozamb. ii. 548 ; Hack, in Bulet. Soc. Brot. vi. 141 ; Durand & 
Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 741 ; K. Schum. in Engl. Pfl. Ost-Afr. C. 100. 
Nile Land. British East Africa : Tanaland, Linton , 197 ! Italian Somali- 
land : common on dunes near Torda (lower Jub), Paoli, 319 . 
Mozambique Distr. Zanzibar, Hildebrandt, 1089 ! Last ! German East 
Africa : Tanga, Holst, 2033 ! Portuguese East Africa : Querimba, Peters 
Mozambique ; British Frontier, Carvalho ! Msalu River, Allen, 137 ! 
Evidently closely allied to D. longiflora, but distinct in its bushy growth, 
broader leaves and the long copious silky indumentum of the spikelets. The 
mature fertile floret also seems to be slightly more slender and brown, not 
olive-green. 
