GRASS FAMILY. 



55 



Sparingly naturalized in California: reported from the vicinity of 

 San Francisco, Behr; Berkeley hills, Davy. June-Sept. 



22. DANTHONIA DC. 



Inflorescence in ours consisting of a paniculate raceme or simple 

 panicle or the spikelets solitary and terminal. Spikelets about 

 7-flowered. Bracts persistent, nearly equal, keeled, awnless, equaling 

 the whole spikelet, 3 to 9 (rarely only l)-nerved. Rachilla jointed and 

 pilose between the flowers, prolonged beyond the insertion of the 

 uppermost bractlet. Flowers all perfect, or the uppermost staminate. 

 Bractlet 7 to 13-nerved, terminating in 2 sharp, usually rigidly awn- 

 pointed .teeth, between which is a geniculate, spreading awn, flattened 

 at the base and spirally twisted, formed from the three middle nerves; 

 palea hyaline, broadly 2-nerved, equaling or exceeding the entire 

 portion of the bractlet, obtuse or 2-toothed. Stamens 3. Scales 2, 

 entire. Ovary smooth, stipitate. (Named in honor of Etienne 

 Danthoine, a French botanist of the 18th century.) 



1. D. Californica Boland. Danthonia. Tufted perennial: stems 

 1£ to 3 ft. high, slender, usually sub-erect; sheaths bearded at the 

 throat, densely or sparsely villous, or smooth, the hairs arising from 

 minute, white papilla?; ligule obscure; blades mostly convolute- 

 setaceous; spikelets 1 to 5, rarely 10, terminal, 7£ to 12 lines long, 

 usually purplish; pedicels long, slender, minutely and densely 

 hirsute, spreading; bracts enclosing the rest of the spikelet, acumi- 

 nate, 8 to 10 lines long; flowers about 7; bractlet broad, coriaceous 

 below, about 4 lines long excluding the awn, with tufts of white hairs 

 on the callus and on the margins from about the middle downwards; 

 its teeth about 2 lines long; awn spreading, barely exserted, brownish 

 below, with short, spreading hairs on the nerves; palea filiate, notched 

 above; achene about 2 lines long. 



Coast Ranges from San Francisco Bay northward and southward; 

 the prevalent grass on dry hills, especially along the coast: Berkeley; 

 San Francisco; Crystal Springs Lake; Olema; Point Reyes. Type 

 locality "on borders of cultivated fields near the bay at Oakland; 

 hills near Mission Dolores, San Francisco." 



Tribe 6. Chlorideae. Finger-grass Tribe. 



Inflorescence a simple panicle of spikes which are usually digitate 

 at the end of, or scattered along, its main axis, or, rarely, soiitary and 

 terminal. Rachis not jointed or notched as in Hordea\ Spikelets 

 sessile in 2 rows, which form unilateral spikes; in ours all perfect and 

 1 or rarely 2-flowered; lowest flower always perfect. Rachilla usually 

 prolonged beyond the insertion of the terminal flower, and (except in 

 Spartina) jointed above the bracts so that these persist after the 

 flowers have fallen. Bractlet usually keeled, entire and unawned, 

 or toothed and with 1 or 3 terminal straight awns. The inflorescence 

 closely resembles that of Paspalum, but the spikelets resemble those 

 of Festuceae. 



