A. Vaviloviana, which scarcely deserves the rank of 
species, appears to be a short-awned variety of 4. Wiestit. 
It is regarded by Mal’tsev as the wild oat from which 
A. abyssinica has been derived. 
10. A.abyssinica Hochst. =A. strigosa Schreb. ssp. 
abyssinica (Hochst. ) Thell. = 4. sativa L. var. abyssinica 
Engler. This oat is restricted to Abyssinia, Eritrea and 
Yemen (Mal’tsev, 1929) where it is both cultivated and 
semi-wild (Vavilov, 1926). Harlan reports (Stanton and 
Dorsey, 1927) observing it rarely in Abyssinia and only 
as an admixture in barley fields. The natives informed 
him they had seeded it in the barley fields intentionally. 
A. abyssinica is the only cultivated tetraploid oat. It 
is described by Mal’tsev as having the awn- points at the 
tip of the lemma reduced to =1 mm. as in A. Vavilovi- 
ana. However, Stanton and Dorsey describe plants of 
this species as having the awn-points 2-4 mm. long. 
Evidently Mal’tsev was unaware of the range of varia- 
tion in A. abyssinica. 
11. A.barbata Pott= A. strigosa Schreb. ssp. barbata 
(Pott) Thell. A wild oat occurring along the Atlantic 
coast of Europe from Brittany southward, throughout 
the Mediterranean region (Thellung, 1911) and extend- 
ing eastward through Transcaucasia and southern Turkis- 
tanto Afghanistan and the western Himalayas (Mal’tsev, 
1929). A. barbata has been introduced into the United 
States, where it occurs as a common weed from Wash- 
ington and Oregon to Arizona and California (Hitch- 
cock, 1950). 
12. A. sterilis L. sens. ampl. excl. form. cult. The 
wild red oat, a hexaploid complex distinguished by the 
lack of articulation of the upper florets, isan Old World 
species, ranging from the Atlantic to the Himalayas, and 
| 274 | 
