There are three _glumes_ in the spikelet corresponding to the second, third and fourth glumes of a Panicum, the first glume being obsolete. The _first glume_ is membranous, ovate-lanceolate, acute, about 1/3 the length of the spikelet or very much less, 3-nerved, densely ciliate along the margins and silkily hairy between the nerves. The _second glume_ is greenish, oblong lanceolate, acute, ciliate along the margins and with fine appressed silky hairs between the lateral nerves, 5-nerved, palea is very minute or absent. The _third glume_ is oblong, sub-acuminate, a little shorter than the second glume, 3-nerved, sub-chartaceous, paleate; _palea_ is similar to the glume in texture. _Anthers_ are pale yellow with a tinge of purple. _Stigmas_ are white. _Lodicules_ are two, minute and cuneate. This is an excellent fodder grass and is very much liked by cattle. It grows very rapidly and is found in cultivated fields and in somewhat rich loamy soils. _Distribution._--Throughout the Presidency in the plains and low hills. [Illustration: Fig. 76.--Digitaria longiflora.] =Digitaria longiflora, _Pers._= This is a perennial grass with short underground branches covered with scales. Stems are many, tufted, slender, creeping and rooting, or ascending and suberect, simple or branched, 6 to 20 inches long and leafy and leaves bifarious and divaricate. _Leaf-sheaths_ are hairy or glabrous, compressed, keeled. The _ligule_ is a short membrane. _Nodes_ are glabrous. _Leaf-blades_ are broadly lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acute, spreading, flat, or in short-leaved forms, stiff and pungent, 1 to 2 inches long (rarely also 5 inches long), glabrous above and below, ciliate at the margins towards the base, and with a very minutely serrate hyaline margin. The _inflorescence_ consists of two to four terminal spikes with a slender, long, hairy or glabrous peduncle. The spikes are slender, erect or spreading with fine winged glabrous rachis. The _spikelets_ are small, 1/20 to 1/14 inch, geminate, one short and the other long pedicelled, appressed to the rachis, elliptic, silky with slender crisped hairs, pale green or purplish. [Illustration: Fig. 77.--Digitaria longiflora. 1. A portion of the spike; 2. the first glume; 3 and 4. the second and third glumes; 5 and 6. the fourth glume and its palea; 7. lodicules, ovary and stamens.] There are three _glumes_ with a rudimentary first glume. The _first glume_ is very minute and hyaline. The _second glume_ is as long as the third, membranous, 5-nerved (rarely 3- to 7-nerved), silkily hairy. The _third glume_ is similar to the second and usually 7-nerved (rarely 3- to 5-nerved). The _fourth glume_ is sub-chartaceous, ovate-oblong, paleate, slightly shorter than the third glume, pale brown, smooth. There are two small _lodicules_. Styles are long and purple. This grass grows in cultivated dry fields. It seems to like a sandy loamy soil. _Distribution._--Throughout India. 3. Eriochloa, _H. B. & K._