Trabut: Origin of Cultivated Oats 



.S7 



SERIES OF FORMS OF "ANIMATED" OR "FLY" OAT 



All of the above are merely varieties of Avetta sterilis, and a glance at them, 

 when they are side by side, shows plainly the mistake made by 

 writers who considered the two extremes as separate species, making 

 the Algerian oat a form of A.sativa, when it is really a form of A. 

 sterilis, in which the awns have been reduced and the articulation 

 consolidated through a complete series of intermediate forms. _ The 

 varieties are as follows: 1. Avena sterilis maxima. 2. A. sterilis. 3, 

 A. sterilis liidoviciana. 4. A. sterilis micrantha. 5. A. sterilis segetalis. 

 6. A. sterilis pseudovilis. 7. A. sterilis calvescens. 8. A. sterilis pseu- 

 dovilis. (Fig. 11). 



Exsicc. Sic. 712 (fig. 11, No. 5). Spike- 

 lets a little less voluminous, remarkable 

 because of the great reduction of the 

 not geniculate and barely twisted awn. 

 Sicily in cultivated fields. A form very 

 close to this is quite common in Algeria 

 in ctiltivated fields ; the seed is large and 

 the lemmae are black. 



A . sterilis calvescens Trabut and Thel- 

 Itmg, Vierteljahrssch. Naturf. Ges. Zur- 

 ich, vol. 56, p. 315, 1911; A. sterilis var. A. 

 Trabut (Compt. Rend. Acad. Sci., vol. 

 491 p,. 227-229, 1909). Lemmae coria- 



ceous, glabrous, awn twisted, geni- 

 culate, but the callus still very hairy 

 (fig. 11, No. 7). _ _ 



A. sterilis pseudovilis Hausskn. Kri- 

 tische Bemerkungen iiber einige Avena 

 Ar ten, 1894. A. sterilis var. B. Trabut, 

 loc. cit. This variety differs but little 

 from the cultivated form in which no 

 hairs are found except on the callus of 

 the lower flower, the awns are reduced, 

 but at maturity the spikelet separates 

 very easily from the glumes (fig. 11, 

 No. 8.). 



