Order GRAMINEaE, 
Genus Danthonia. 
Sub-Order Avenaceje. 
Genus XVI.—DANTHONIA, Decandolle. 
Tufted or tussac grasses. Leaves flat or involute. Panicle effuse or contracted. Spikelets pedicelled, 
the rachis of the spikelet articulating above the outer glumes. Empty glumes unequal, keeled, awnless. 
Flowering glumes pedicelled, articulating at the base of each floret, convex at the back, 9-nerved, 
broadly 2-fid, the divisions cuspidate or awned, dorsal awn from between the divisions, long, slender or 
stout, filiform or flat and twisted at the base ; the awn in some species much reduced, silky, with 
scattered hairs on the lower half or glabrous, fringed, or with distant tufts of hairs on margin and back, 
in some cases the hairs are arranged in circles round the glume. Palea 2-fid. Scales glabrous, fleshy, 
crowned with long cilia. Stamens 3. Ovary glabrous. Grain free. Distribution of Genus : 
TEMPERATE REGIONS OF THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE, SOUTH AFRICA, 
AUSTRALIA, TASMANIA, NEW ZEALAND. Etymology: Named in honor of M. Danthoine, 
a French Botanist. 
Arrangement of the Species :— 
I .—Empty glumes shorter than the flowering. Flowering glumes with scattered silky hairs on the 
lower half, and fringed on the margins and back with long silky hairs ; in D. Cunnmghamii, often 
margins only fringed. 
Awn subulate, not flattened or twisted. 
Panicle open, large, effuse, branches 6—10-inches long ... ... 1. D. Cunninghamii. 
Panicle ovate, 3—4-inches long, lax, open; leaves short ... ... 2. D. ovata. 
Panicle short, close, ovoid, branches —i-inch long ... ... 3. D. bromoides. 
Awn flattened and often twisted at the base. 
Panicle very lax, open; leaves setaceous 
Panicle open, i-|-inches long, of 3—5 spikelets ; leaves very short, setaceous 
Panicle very lax, open; leaves flat, coriaceous 
4. D. Raoulii. 
5. D. australis. 
6. D. jlauescens. 
II .—Empty glumes longer than the flowering, and including them. Flowering glume with distant 
tufts of silky hairs on margins and back; or circles of hair round the glume, fringed with hairs on 
margins in D. Buchanani, and D. pauciftora. 
