472 
CLVII. GRAMINEiE (Stapf). 
[ Digitaria . 
overlapping when mature. Anthers § lin. long. Grain oblong, 
plano-convex, J lin. by f-J lin., whitish ; scutellum elliptic, not 
quite half the length of the grain. — Panicum aristulatum, Steud. 
Syn. Glum. i. 42 ; Durand & Schinz, Consp. FI. Afr. v. 741. 
Upper Guinea. Senegal, Leprieur ! Perrottet, 907 ! French Sudan : San, 
on the sandy banks of the Bani River, Chevalier, 1094 ! Middle Niger; near 
Djenne, Chevalier, 1121 ! 
Lower Guinea. Lowor^or^o, Smith ! 
40. D. pennaca,^ Clnov. in Result. Scient. Miss. Stefanini- 
Paoli , i. 183. Suffrutescent, 1J to almost 3 ft. high, with a 
short rhizome producing clusters of extravaginal innovations 
with densely hairy to white-tomentose cataphylls which long 
surround the bulbously thickened culm -bases. Culms very slender, 
erect or ascending, many-noded, with barren branches (or their 
remains) from the lower, and fascicled flowering and barren 
branches from the upper nodes, wiry or in the older parts quite 
woody, brown and shining, glabrous ; stem-nodes swollen. Leaves 
glaucous ; sheaths tight, firm, finely striate, smooth, finally slipping 
off and withering away ; ligules hyaline, white, truncate, up to 1 lin. 
long ; blades linear from an equally wide or slightly attenuated base, 
tapering to an acute point, 2-4 in. by 1|-2| lin., rather firm, though 
thin, smooth and quite glabrous except for a few occasional long 
hairs near the junction with the sheath, or very finely pubescent, 
margins slightly rough, midrib fine, lateral nerves numerous, very 
fine and close. Racemes 6-10 in a whorl, followed by 1 or few 
solitary racemes from the continued axis (rarely some of the upper 
racemes crowded into a second scanty false whorl), spreading at 
length stiffly and more or less horizontally, up to 5 in. long ; rha- 
chis filiform, angular or upwards triquetrous, loosely plumose, 
bare for 2 or 3 in., then bearing up to 10 (usually 5 or 3) distant 
paired or upwards solitary spikelets ; pedicels of the paired spikelets 
very unequal, one very short, the other 14-2 lin. long, filiform., 
angular, scabrid. Spikelets linear-oblong, subacute, not quite 
1J lin. by § lin., greyish-green to whitish. Lower glume a minute 
hyaline tightly appressed ovate scale about f lin. long ; upper linear- 
oblong, subobtuse, equalling the spikelet, membranous, 3-nerved 
with dense lines of tightly appressed rarely somewhat loose hairs 
between the nerves and along the margins. Lower floret corre- 
sponding in outline and size to the spikelet : valve membranous, 
7- or sub-7-nerved, the submarginal nerves very fine or imperfect, 
the remaining distinct and somewhat raised with very dense lines 
of extremely fine appressed or slightly loose hairs between the inner 
5 and an additional line outside the submarginal, hairs more or less 
flexuous with obtuse tips, apparently subsolid ; valvule and lodi- 
cules very minute, up to ~ lin. long. Upper floret linear-oblong, 
acute, very slightly shorter than the spikelet, turning brown early, 
chartaceous, tough, margins of valve distant. Anthers 4 lin. long. 
