ORIGIN OF CULTIVATED OATS 



Difference in Ancestry has Vital Bearing on Adaptability of Varieties — Forms 

 Derived from A. Sterilis Best Suited to Southern Countries — Possibihties 

 of Hybridization Indication that Environment is Factor in Causing 

 Variation Influence of Culture and Result of Mutations 



Dr. L. Trabut 

 Director of the Botanical Service of the Government of Algeria, Algiers, Algeria. 



A 



LTHOUGH botanists have in the past usually considered that the many varieties 

 of cultivated oat were descended from Avena fatua, research has now proved 

 that several species are to be found in the ancestry of these cultivated varieties, 

 and particularly that those grown in the Mediterranean region mostly trace 

 back to Avena sterilis. In future planting, therefore, and in attempting to extend the 

 region where oats can be sticcessfully grown, it is absolutely essential that regard be 

 paid to the botanical affinities of the variety chosen, so that time and energy shall not 

 be wasted by attempts to grow descendants of Avena fatua of temperate climates in 

 subtropical regions where only A. sterilis will flourish, or in a dry region where 

 A. barbata is best adapted to ctdtivation. The prevailing belief that oats can not be 

 grown in the southern United States is probably based on the fact that all the experi- 

 ments made there have been with cold-climate oats. A great deal of money has already 

 been lost by such attempts, foredoomed to failure because of the unsuitableness of the 

 material: — although suitable material might have been had, and the country's wealth 

 thus enormously increased, had growers studied the genetic history of the cultivated 

 oats earlier. From this point of view, the interesting studies of Dr. Trabut have such 

 practical importance to plant breeders throughout the luorli that the council determined to 

 republish them from the Proceedings of the Fourth Congress of Genetics, to ivhich body 

 they were communicated at the meeting in Paris in 1911. The translation is by 

 5. C. Stuntz. 



In studying the section Euavena of fact, we know that on the Mcditer- 



the genus Avena with a little care, we reanean literal we are able to bring 



are im]jressed with the great number of together the following very important 



secondary forms which constitute the series of Avena sterilis, ])cginning with 



species, often living in the midst of the most useless forms and ending with 



cultivated crops in "outposts" estab- an oat largely cultivated in the Mediter- 



lished as a result of their wide dis- ranean region, and up to the present 



persion outside of the region of their wrongly confounded by both scientific 



origin. and practical writers wnth Avena sativa. 



Without doubt these fornis mav be 



ascribed to the influence of cultivation. complete series of forms. 



causing variations, or favoring forms Avena sterilis maxima Perez Lara, 



which would not find \Aa.cc under the Fl. Gad. (fig. 11, No. 1). Inflorescence 



natural conditions of existence. I am few-flowered. Spikelets very large, the 



even convinced that it is by this in- glumes attaining 50 mm.; lemmae 



voluntary cultivation that man has covered with long hairs, and bearing 



caused the apjjcarance of the useful a strongly develoi^cd, geniculate and 



races of the genus Avena. twisted, often hairy, awn. 



But, not to depart from the realm of .1. sterilis scgetalis Bianca, Todaro 



74 



