118 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Notholcus Xash; Hitch., in Jepson, Fl. Calif. 3: 128. 1912. Only one species 

 described. Notholcus is derived from the Greek nothos, false, and Holcus, the 

 generic name formerly applied to this group. Nash 1 spells the name Nothoholcus. 

 For a discussion of the reasons for the change of name, see page 266. The ge- 

 neric name Holcus is there applied to the sorghums, necessitating a new name 

 for the velvet grass. 



The common species in the United States is Notholcus lanatus 

 (L.) Nash (Holcus lanatus L.), known as velvet grass (fig. 62). 

 This species is introduced in various places in the Eastern States 

 and also on the Pacific coast, where it is abundant. It is an erect, 

 grayish, velvety-pubescent grass 2 to 3 feet tall, with a contracted 

 pale or purplish panicle 2 to 4 inches long. Velvet grass is some- 

 times recommended as a meadow grass, but for this purpose it has 

 little value except on moist sandy or sterile soil where other grasses 

 will not thrive. It has been used with some success in sandy fields 

 around the mouth of the Columbia River in Washington and Oregon. 



A second species, Notholcus mollis (L.) Hitchc., with creeping 

 rhizomes, has been introduced in California, where it is rare. 



52. DANTHONIA Lam. and DC. 



Spikelets several-flowered, the rachilla readily disarticulating 

 above the glumes and between the florets ; glumes about equal, broad 

 and papery, acute, mostly exceeding the uppermost floret; lemmas 

 rounded on the back, obscurely several-nerved, the base with a strong 

 callus, the apex bifid, the lobes acute, usually extending into slender 

 awns, a stout awn arising from between the lobes ; awn flat, tightly 

 twisted below, geniculate, exserted, including three nerves of the 

 lemma. 



Tufted, low or moderately tall perennials, with few-flowered, open, 

 or spikelike panicles of rather large spikelets. Species about 100, in 

 the temperate regions of both hemispheres; especially abundant in 

 South Africa ; 12 species in the United States, about equally divided 

 between the Eastern and the Western States. 



Type species : Avena spicata L. 



Danthonia Lam. and DC., Fl. Franc. 3: 32. 1805. The work cited is a local 

 flora in which the two French species are described, D. decumbent (which is 

 the same as Xicfillnyia (lecuiubcnx) and D. prorincialis. The authors, however, 

 mention in the paragraph preceding the one devoted to the generic description 

 that "besides the species described below one ought to refer to this genus, 1st, 

 Avena spicata L. or Avena ylumosa Michx. ; 2d, Arena cfilicina Lam. not Vill." 

 Of the four species mentioned, three are congeneric with Avena spicata and 

 correspond with the generic description better than does Danthonia decumbens, 

 which is the first species described under Danthonia. Avena spicata is se- 

 lected as the type of Dauthonia. 2 Piper 3 has selected Festuca decumbens L. 

 (Danthonia decumbens) as the type of Danthonia because it is the first species 

 described under Danthonia, and takes up Merathrepta Raf. for the species 

 generally referred to Danthonia. Nelson and Macbride 4 take up Pentameris 

 Beauv. in place of Merathrepta. 



iBritt. and Brown, Illustr. Fl., ed. 2. 1: 214. 1913. 

 2 See Hitchc., Bot. Gaz. 57 : 328. 1914. 

 sContr. T T . S. Xat. Herb. 11: 122. 1906. 

 *Bot. Gaz. 56: 469. 1913. 



