88 GRAMINEA 
other, nearly smooth ; awn straggling. Annual. This grass appears to be of 
similar origin to the last species, and its seed probably came mingled with 
foreign corn. ‘The spreading awns form a characteristic distinction of the 
species. 
33. (26) Oar (Avéna). 
1. Wild Oat (4. fdtua).—Panicle large and spreading, its branches 
rough ; spikelets drooping ; empty glumes large, keeled, and taper-pointed ; 
flowering glumes 2—3, much awned, smaller than the empty glumes, with a 
number of long, stiff, yellowish hairs attached to the base of the outer glume. 
Annual. Several Oat-grasses intrude themselves into the corn-fields, and this 
is a very common weed there in June, July, and August, rising to the height 
of three feet. Its flat bright green leaves are marked with fine lines, and 
the long twisted awn of the flowering glume serves as an excellent hygrometer, 
being affected by the smallest change in the atmosphere. ‘This grass is so like 
the cultivated oat, A. sativa, that some think it is but a variety of that plant, 
from which it is distinguished by its longer awns, and by the stiff hairs at 
the base of the glume. Professor Buckman, however, remarks that it is 
approached in the latter respect by occasional starved or seeded specimens of 
the field oat, in which the hairs occur. ‘This circumstance,” he observes, 
‘gives some countenance to the belief so general among the farmers of the 
heavy lias clays in the vale of Gloucester, namely, that it is unsafe for them 
to cultivate oats because they leave behind a degenerated race of wild oats.” 
At any rate it is a troublesome weed, especially in stiff sterile lands. It is 
common in fields of this kind, either of. wheat, barley, or oats, as well as 
among beans ; and its blades being in its early growth so like those of corn, 
it cannot in the corn-field be distinguished, and is therefore left behind, after 
hoeing. Farmers have long known that the seeds of the wild oat lie a long 
time uninjured in the soil; and so large is the plant, that it occupies a con- 
siderable space on valuable lands, and helps to keep off sun and air from the 
corn, ripening too before the wheat, and shedding its grain before that is 
removed from the land. It is a handsome grass with its large cluster of pale 
green spikelets, their chaffy glumes striped with green lines, and nodding on 
their slender branches, though the main stem of the grass and of its cluster 
are erect. 
The Oat was very early cultivated in this country ; its name is a Saxon 
one, and evidently connected with the verb “to eat,” the grain having been 
used as a bread corn as well as for horses. In very old books it is called 
Haver or Hafer corn; our old herbalists called it Ote, Ete, or Haver ; and 
several European countries have a very similar name for the plant. The 
officer of the household, who in ancient times had to supply provender for 
the horses, “horssemete,” as it was called, was also termed an Avenar or 
Avenere, from the Latin name of this grass. In Wales the Oat is still called 
Hever. This elegant grass is the cognizance of the Duke of Montrose, 
though it is not believed to be indigenous in Scotland. 
2. Bristle-pointed Oat (A. sirigésa).—Panicle erect, the branches all 
turning to one side; flowering glumes awned, two in each spikelet, each as 
long as the glumes, and terminated by two long, straight bristles. Annual. 
