2613
D I G I T A R I A humifusa.
Glabrous Cock’s-foot Finger-grass.
TR IA ND R IA Digynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. of 2—3 very unequal, close-pressed,
awnless valves. Cor. of unequal, depressed, awnless
valves. Seed coated with the hardened corolla.
Sm. (Florets on a one-sided spike.)
Spec. Char. Leaves and sheaths glabrous; florets
ovate, pubescent.
Syn. Digitaria humifusa. Pers. Syn. PI. v. I. 85.
Fries Nov. Suec. 7. Hook. Brit. FI. ined. 58.
D. glabra. Dumort. Agrost. Belg. 137. t. 13.y.31.
Syntherisma glabrum. Schrad. FI. Germ. v. 1. 163.
t .3. f .6.
Panicum sanguinale. Wahl. FI. Suec. 34.
T h e specimen here represented was gathered by Miss
Molesworth at Weybridge, Surrey, growing among loose
sand, a station where it had long been known to exist by
Mr. Borrer. That gentleman thinks it probable that most,
if not all, of the stations given to D. sanguinalis in English
Flora, except that of Battersea, belong to this species. The
Ipswich D. sanguinalis, he says, is certainly this.
The present plant is generally of a very purplish hue.
It has seldom more than three or four spikes, growing together,
and is specifically distinguished by its glabrous leaves
and sheaths, and by the ovate, not oblong, florets. The
stems are many, springing from the same fibrous annual
root, more or less procumbent. Leaves short, linear-lanceolate,
acuminate, glabrous, as well as the large and conspicuous
and often swollen sheaths, and quite smooth to the
touch. Spikes ternate, or quaternate. Rachis with a broad,
membranaceous, striated wing, rough at the margin. Florets
generally in pairs, one on a short, the other upon a longer,