120 BULLETIN 772, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Pentameris Beauv., Ess. Agrost. 92, pl. 18, f. 8. 1812. P. thwarii 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. The name is taken 
_up by Nelson and Macbride in place of 
Merathrepta Raf. 
Merathrepta Raf., Bull. Bot. Seringe 
1: 221. 1830. The genus is described 
briefly and Avena spicata mentioned. 
This species is, therefore, the type. 
One species of Danthonia, 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,? and the culms 
finally disarticulate at the nodes 
below these. 
Fie. 63.—Wild oat-grass, Danthonia spicata. Plant, < 4; spikelet, floret, and a cleisto- 
gene from the axil of a lower leaf, all x 5. 
1Thiselt. Dyer, Fl. Cap. 7: 512. 1898. 
2See following paragraph on Merathrepta. 
3 Chase, Amer. Journ. Bot. 5: 254. 1918. 
