118 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Notholeus Nash; Hitch., in Jepson, Fl. Calif. $: 126. 1912. Only one species 
described. Notholcus is derived from the Greek nothos, false, and Holeus, the 
generic name formerly applied to this group. Nash* spelis the name Nothoholeus. 
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, Votholcus mollis (I.) Hitche., 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 
eallus, 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 iin ere and the Western States. 
Type species: Avena spicata L. 
Danthonia Lam, and DC., Fl. Frane. 3: 32. 1805. The work cited is a local 
flora in which the two French species are described, D. decumbens (which is 
the same as Sieglingia decumbens) and D. provincialis. 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, Ist, 
Avena spicata L. or Avena glumosa Michx.; 2d, Avena calicina Lam. not Vill.” 
Of the four species mentioned, three are congeneriec 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 Danthonia. Piper® has selected Festuca decumbens UL. 
(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* take up Pentameris 
Beauv. in place of Merathrepta. 
1 Britt. and Brown, Illustr. Fl., ed. 2, 1: 214. 1913. 
2 See Hitche., Bot. Gaz. 57: 328. 1914. 
8 Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 11: 122. 1906. 
4Bot. Gaz. 56: 469. 1913. 
