186 DANTHOISTIA. A VENA. 



48. DANTHONIA De Candolle. WILD OAT 



GRASS. 



GENERIC CHARACTER, 



Lower palet (oblong or ovate, rounded, cylindra- 

 ceous, 7 to 9-nerved) bearing between the sharp- 

 pointed or awn-like teeth of the tip an awn composed 

 of the 3 middle nerves, which is flattish and spirally 

 twisting at the base, otherwise nearly as in Avena ; 

 glumes longer than the imbricated flowers. Ours 

 perennials, 1 to 2 feet high, with narrow and soon 

 involute leaves, hairy sheaths bearded at the throat^ 

 and a small, simple panicle or raceme of about 7-flow- 

 ered spikelets. 



Named from Danthoine, a French botanist. 



1. D. Spicata (Wild Oat grass, White Top, Old 

 Fog). Is common in dry, sunny pastures. Flowers 

 in June. 



2. D . Sericea (Taller W ild Oat Grass) . Taller than 

 D. Spicata, and not tufted ; 1 to 3 feet high. Dry 

 or moist sandy soils, Southern Massachusetts, New 

 Jersey, and southward. Flowers in June. 



49. AVENA-Linn. Oat, 



GENERIC CHARACTER. 



Spikelets 2 to many -flowered, panicled, the flowers 

 herbaceo-chartaceous,or be coming harder, of firmer 

 texture than the large and mostly unequal glumes, 



