Diqitaria.'] clvii. graminejg (Stapf). 471 
equalling the spikelet, acute, faintly 3-nerved, margins of valve con - 
tiguous or almost overlapping in flower, distant in fruit. Anthers 
up to \ lin. long, linear. Grain oblong- to globose-ellipsoid, §-4 lin. 
long, white or slightly purplish, tightly enclosed in the slightly 
indurated brown husks : scutellum ovate-elliptic, not quite reaching 
the middle of the grain. — Stapf in Hook. Ic. PI. t. 3068 ; Cheval. 
Sudania, 33. Paspalum exile , Kippist in Proc. Linn. Soc. i. ‘157, 
167. Pas'palum longiflorum , Cheval. Miss, au Senegal, 241 ; Pobe- 
guin, Ess. FI. Guin. Fran?. 215 ; not of Retz. 
Upper Guinea. Sierra Leone : Sendugu, Thomas, 572 ! 054 ! Mayoso, 
Thomas, 1485 ! and without precise locality, Afzelius ! Clarke ! Schon ! French 
Guinea : Timbo, Pobeguin, 1702 ! Kouroussa, Pobeguin, 490 ! San, Chevalier, 
2210 ! 2217 ! Togo : Difalu, Kersting, 193 ! Northern Nigeria : Nassarawa, 
Elliot, 105 ! Zaria, Lamb, 53 ! and without precise locality, Yates, 29 ! 
Locally much cultivated from Senegal and Sierra Leone to Nigeria. 
Vernacular names “’Fundi” (Sierra Leone), “ Fonio” (Senegal), “ Acha” 
(Hausa States). Very closely allied to D. longiflora, Pers., which may be its 
ancestral form. 
from a few inches to 1 ft. high. Culms tufted, ascending from a 
usually prostrate and rooting base and branched from it, primary 
culms many-, secondary 4-6-noded, slender, glabrous, uppermost 
internode by far the longest. Leaf-sheaths somewhat loose, the 
lower of the primary culms usually slipping off the culms, softly hairy 
and loosely bearded at the bases (nodes) ; ligules very short, truncate, 
densely ciliate ; blades linear from an equally broad, sometimes 
slightly rounded base, tapering to an acute point, J-l in. by 1-14 lin., 
flat, softly and loosely hairy, margins finely cartilaginous and 
scaberulous upwards, midrib and side-nerves indistinct. Racemes 
3-5, sessile, digitate, slender, suberect, rather stiff, 1J-2 in. long, 
greenish when in flower ; rhachis flat, straight, about § lin. wide, 
with thin herbaceous sides or wings and a slender midrib, obtuse and 
prominent particularly on the back, margins scaberulous, internodes 
1-1 J lin. long ; pedicels 2-3-nate, very finely filiform, flexuous, terete, 
the longest §-§ lin. long, slightly scaberulous or glabrous, tips 
discoid. Spikelets appressed, densely crowded at the base, then 
subimbricate, oblong-lanceolate, aristulate, narrowly oblong- 
lanceolate, up to 1 lin. long (excluding the awn), apparently quite 
glabrous. Lower glume suppressed or indicated by a faint hyaline 
rim ; upper oblong, obtuse or subacute, about J lin. long, delicate, 
3-nerved, finely hairy along the outer nerves. Lower floret : valve 
thin, oblong, acute, ~ lin. long, 7-nerved, with a line of hairs along 
the margins, hairs about — lin. long, fine, verrucose all along, at 
first appressed, spreading at maturity ; valvule and lodicules quite 
obsolete. Upper floret as long as the spikelet, very thinly papery, 
oblong-lanceolate (ovate if flattened out) ; valve long-aristu- 
late-acuminate, awnlet smooth, f-f lin. long, margins slightly 
