474 clvii. gramine^i (Stapf). [. Digitaria . 
Lower Guinea. Angola : Huilla ; common in sandy clayey thickets near 
Lopollo, Welwitsch, 2634 ! 
A somewhat aberrant type, in the habit of the panicle resembling the South 
African Digitaria flaccida, Stapf. 
42 . D. elegans, Staff Perennial, compactly caespitose with woolly- 
tomentose bases. Culms erect, slender, simple, about 3-noded, 
glabrous. Leaves glabrous ; lower sheaths 'tight, firm, long-per- 
sistent, upper looser, finely striate, very smooth ; ligules reduced 
to a membranous glabrous rim ; blades linear, long-tapering to a 
fine point, imperceptibly passing into the sheath, of the lower leaves 
erect and 6-9 in. by 1 lin., of the uppermost very much shorter, 
fiat, glaucous -green, firm, midrib indistinct, merged in the close 
slender somewhat prominent general nervation. Racemes ped- 
uncled, solitary and scattered or opposite or 2-3-nate on a very slender 
common axis at irregular distances, gathered into a graceful lax 
oblong or pyramidal panicle (6 in. by 3-3 1 in.), very slender, rather 
loose, obliquely to almost horizontally spreading and slightly curved 
up to almost 3 in. long ; peduncle finely filiform, terete, 1-J in. 
long ; rhachis compressed, angular, ~q— § lin. wide, lateral angles 
scabrid, internodes about 2 lin. long ; pedicels mostly 2-nate, 
sometimes 3-nate or solitary, unequal, the longer up to 1J lin. long 
finely filiform, scabrid and upwards shortly setulose with obscurely 
discoid tips. Spikelets very loosely appressed, lanceolate, acutely 
acuminate, 1J lin. long, green, tinged with purple, purplish-silky. 
Lower glume 0 ; upper narrowly lanceolate, subacute, /q— lin. long, 
thinly membranous, 3-nerved, with lines of rather stiff appressed 
(permanently ?) purple pointed hairs between the nerves and along 
the margins about J lin. long. Lower floret corresponding in outline 
and size to the spikelet : valve firmly membranous, longitudinally 
slightly and narrowly depressed with the rounded sides somewhat 
bulging, sub-7 -nerved, mid-nerve fine, prominent, smooth, outer pair 
of lateral nerves very close, almost fused into one (but the vascular 
strands distinct), a dense line of hairs (like those of the upper glume) 
on the inner side of the inner side-nerves, starting from the base 
or higher up, and another along the margins forming an appressed 
purple fringe which is produced into a short brush-like point 
beyond the tip of the floret ; valvule and lodicules minute. Upper 
floret lanceolate, acutely acuminate, slightly shorter than the spike- 
let, thinly chartaceous, pale or often with purple sides, margins of 
valve contiguous or slightly overlapping in flower. 
Lower Guinea. Belgian Congo • Katanga ; in dry wooded land, Elisabeth - 
ville, Horrible, 59 ! 
43. D. uniglumis^ Staff. Perennial, compactly caespitose, with 
intra vaginal innovations and a short praemorse rhizome. Culms 
erect, rather firm, coated at the base with the fibrous remains of 
