nARM'.r, 157 



The Willi Oat is a sand plant and addicted to sand sdil. 



Barley Ic.il stri|)r, Pyrcnopliora tricliostoiiia, atuuks the Wild (^at. 



Two beetles, I.ciiia Cva>ic//a, L. iuc/a)iopa, ami a tly, (\u/inL< 

 pusilla, infest it. 



Avcna, Pliny, is ilu- l.aliii for oat, and the sci-ond Latin iianic 

 means insipid. 



The plant is called Wild Ails. 1 )r.d-;e, Mawr, ll.ixcr, Kcniish 

 Loni^tails. W'ikl Oat, Poor Oats, .Sowlers, I'nrorn. 



The aw I', is h\"<^roscopic, and has been usetl lor artilici.il Ini^ro- 

 nulers and tor lly-hshin<4'. 



The seeds lie dormant in the soil for a lon^' time, retaining;" vitality 

 a lono- time. The plant is the origin of the cultivated Oat, A. satk'a. 



Essential SpKniTc Ciiakacthrs: — 



2,1"^. .l:r/ni fatua, L. Stem tall, leaves bright oreen, spikelets 

 drooping at length, ])anicle spreading, hairs at base of the llower. 



Darnel (Loliuni leniulcnium, L.) 



At the [)resent day this pernicious plant is found in the Xorth 

 Temperate Zone in Europe, N. Africa, \V. Siberia, and India, and 

 has been introduced in N. America. Watson states that it has been 

 found in si.\ty-four counties, but does not cite them, antl says only: 

 " It seems needless to enumerate counties and authorities in detail 

 for a plant so uncertain of being refound in the same places (fields 

 or even farms) from year to year". It is found as far north as the 

 Shetlands, and in the Channel Islands antl Ireland. 



Regarded as a colonist by Watson, this plant is a very widespread 

 grass, in most parts of the country growing on cultivated land, and 

 coming up like other weeds spontaneously in cornfields as well as in 

 waste places, being found sometimes with foreign plants, as well as in 

 refuse thrown out at a mill in ballast, &c. 



The stem is erect, with much the same hal)it as Rye, rough, with 

 hairs turned back. There are no underground stems as in the latter. 

 The membrane is quite short. 



The panicle is a spike, with long-awned .spikelets, of which there 

 are six, less than the glume, or equal to it, the lower palea or inner 

 glume being awned. The empty glume is longer, the u[)per glume 

 divided into two halfway. The flowering glumes are swollen when 

 in fruit. 



Darnel is 18 in. in height. The flowers are in bloom in |une 

 up to August. It is annual, and the seeds are poisonous. 



