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



Pentameris Beauv., Ess. Agrost. 92, pi. 18, f. 8. 1812. P. tlmarii is the type, 

 as this is the single species mentioned and figured. This is a South African 



species and represents a group in 

 which the lateral teeth of the lemmas 

 are 2-awned. The group is considered 

 to be generically distinct from Dan- 

 thonia by Stapf. 1 The name is taken 

 up by Nelson and Macbride in place of 

 Merathrepta Raf. 2 



Merathrepta Rat, Bull. Bot. Seringe 

 1: 221. 1830. The genus is described 

 briefly and Arena spicata mentioned. 

 This species is, therefore, the type. 



One species of Danthqnia, D. 



spicata (L.) Beauv. (fig. 63), is 

 common on sterile hills and in 

 dry, open woods in the Eastern 

 States, where it is sometimes 

 called poverty grass. It can be 

 recognized, even when not in 

 flower, by its small tufts of curly 

 leaves. In the Western States 

 the species are found in grass- 

 land and contribute somewhat 

 toward the forage value of the 

 range, but usually they are not 

 abundant. All our species pro- 

 duce cleistogenes (enlarged fer- 

 tile cleistogamous spikelets) in 

 the lower sheaths, 3 and the culms 

 finally disarticulate at the nodes 

 below these. 



FIG. G3. Wild oat-grass, Danthonia spicata. Plant, X I ', spikelet, floret, and a cleisfo- 

 gene from the axil of a lower leaf, all X 5. 



1 Thiselt. Dyer, Fl. Cap. 7 : 512. 1898. 



2 See following paragraph on Merathrepta. 



3 Chase, Amer. Journ. Bot. 5:254. 1918. 



