POACEAE 111 
ing the upper floret: lemmas e exeept toward the summit, 5- to 9- 
nerved, bidentate, bearing a dorsal bent and twisted awn (this straight or 
reduced in A. sativa) c cur five ahi in temperate regions, most abundant 
in D Old World.—Oar 
l. A. a L. Annual: stem 50-100 em. tall: leaf- a flat, 5-10 m 
wide: n nodding, 15-40 em. 1o58 P. As nehes spreading or 2 ins. 
spikelets usually 2-flowered: glume ong: DU Ds glabrous, the awn 
usually straight, often wanting.— Qus aai T caped from cult., fields, road- 
sides, woods, and waste-places, nearly throughout N. A. at. of Eurasia.— 
(W. I., Mex.) | 
69. ARRHENATHERUM Beauv. Rather tall perennials, with flat leaf- 
blades and rather dense panicles. Spikelets 2-flowered, the lower floret stami- 
nate, the upper perfect, the rachilla pro- 
uce eyond the florets as a slender: 
bristle; glumes rather broad and papery, the 
below the tip.—Six ee in the temper- 
ate parts of Eurasi 
0 D0 e 
short chain at the base of the stem in A. elatius tuberosum. Ala. to Va. Nat. 
of Eu.): leaf-blades 5-10 mm. wide: panicle pale and shin ny, sometimes purp- 
lish, 15-30 em Dos uL the short branches verticillate: spikelets 7-8 m 
[A 
long. . avena Beauv. ]— (TALL OAT-GRASS. )—Meadows, pu) Eu 
sides, and waste- pH BEBE] from cult., various provinces, Ga. o La. an d 
N. C. Nat. of Eu. 
70. DANTHONIA Lam. Tufted low or moderately tall perennials, with 
few-flowered open or contracted panicles of rather large spikelets, and, besides, 
solitary or few cleistogamous spikelets of 1 or 2 florets at the base of the 
lower leaf-sheaths. Spikelets several-flowered, the rachilla readily disarticu- 
and betwee 
and papery, aeuminate, mostly exceeding the uppermost Pas lemmas rounded 
on the back, obscurely several-nerved, the apex bifid, the lobes aeute, often 
aristate, a stout awn arising fro m between the lobes, pl awn flat, twisted, 
geniculate, exserted.—One hundred species, in the temperate parts of both 
hemispheres, most abundant in southern Afriea.—WILD OAT-GRASSES. 
Leaf-sheaths villous: lemmas densely long-villous all ove 1. D. sericea. 
pee rr glabrous or sparsely pilose: lemmas villous od the mar- 
Sg p age sparsely pilose on the back 
Giane about 1 ong: lemmas glabrous on the back. 2. D. epilis. 
Glumes 7-10 mm. long: lemmas sparsely pilose on the back. 
Stem terete: TEM of lemma triangular, acute, or acumi- 
nate, not aristate 3. D. spicata 
Stem compressed : Poeti of lemma aristate. 4. D. compressa. 
