TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Holcus. 109 



forming a shining coat to the seed, which difference deserves 

 more attention than it has generally received. 



3. H. avenaccus. Oat-like Soft-grass. 



Calyx smooth. Barren floret lowest, with a sharply-bent 

 prominent awn ; fertile one slightly elevated, scarcely 

 awned. Leaves rather harsh. Root knotty. 



H. avenaceus. Scop. Cam. v. 2. 276. Wiggers Holsat. 72. Fl. 



Br. 90. Engl. Bot. v. 12. t. 813. Sibth. 40. Knapp t. 39. 



Slncl. 49. Hook. Scot. 28. Schrad. Germ. v. 1. 247. 

 Avena elatior. Linn. Sp. PL 117. Huds. 53. Curt. Lond.fasc. 3. 



t. 6. Mart. Rust. t. 7. Cullum 42. Leers 40. t. \0.f. 4. Schreb. 



Gram. v. 1. 25. t. 1. 

 A. n. 1492. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 231. 

 A. nodosa. Cullum 41. 

 Gramen nodosum, avenacea panicula. Bauh. Prodr. 3.f. Rail 



Syn.406. Scheuchz. Agr.237. t.4.f. 27, 28. 

 G. avenaceum, panicula acerosa, semine papposo. Dill, in Rail 



Syn. 406. Giss. 93. append. 48. 

 G. bulbosum nodosum. Lob. 1c. v. 1. 23, middle Jig. 

 G. caninum nodosum. Ger. Em. 23. /. 

 G. avenaceum elatius, juba longa splendente. Moris, v. 3. 214. 



sect.S. t.7.f.37. 

 G. aven. elat. radice tuberculis prsedita. Moris, ibid.f.38. 



In pastures, hedges, thickets, and by road-sides, common. 



Perennial. June, July. 



Root more or less knotty, partly from the swoln joints of the base 

 of the stem, with downy fibres. Stem 3 feet high, smooth, simple, 

 jointed ; the joints sometimes downy. Leaves deep green, rough- 

 edged, and rather harsh to the touch, with long, striated sheaths. 

 Stipula short, abrupt. Panicle erect, or a little drooping j its 

 branches rough, half-whorled, directed to one side. Calyx-valves 

 lanceolate, acute, concave, very unequal. Fl. of the same shape, 

 but larger j the lower one most perfect, and most conspicuously 

 awned ; their inner valves narrow, membranous, and flat. Anth. 

 linear, cloven, hanging out at one side. Styles very short. Stig- 

 mas long, spreading horizontally, feathery on the upper side. 

 Seed nearly cylindrical, coated with the hardened corolla. 



Professor Schrader (like Sir Thomas Cullum in his unfinished and 

 unpublished Flora) distinguishes the most bulbous state of this 

 grass as a species, by the name of H. bidbostis. It is but just 

 to record that Linnaeus, by a note in his copy of Scheuchzer, 

 seems to have had a similar intention. Yet. I am persuaded that 

 a dry or fluctuating soil causes the production or increase of 

 these bulbs, as in Phleum pratense nodosum ; and moreover that 

 the occasional downiness of the joints may be attributed to the 

 same cause. In natural affinity this plant is certainly an Avena. 

 The awns vary in length as in many other instances. 



