Trabut: Origin of Cultivated Oats 



77 



ARTICULATIONS OF A. STERILIS 



1. A.sterilis maxima. — 2. A.sterilis glabrescens. — 3. A.sterilis byzau- 

 tina. — 4. A.sterilis culta. — 5. The same, viewed from the front.— 

 6. The same, viewed in profile. The articulation is perhaps the 

 most distinctive character of this species, and the progress of 

 amelioration in the cultivated varieties simply leads toward a 

 greater consolidation of the articulation. (Figure 13.) 



byzantin(\\\.2L's> largely lost the characters 

 of the sterilis type, and constitutes the 

 last stage before reaching the cultivated 

 form; the awn is reduced, the hairs of 

 the callus are reduced, the articulation 

 is still well preser\^ed and the flowers 

 fall easily at maturity, and the lemmae 

 are also more lengthened than in the 

 cultivated races. In 1907 M. Hackel 

 wrote me that he considered this form 

 as intermediate between A. sativa and 

 A. sterilis and named it provisionally 

 A. sativa biaristata (fig. 13, No. 3.) 



A. sterilis algeriensis Trabut, 1910. 

 A. sterilis culta. The Algerian oat is 

 the cultivated form of the sterile oat. 

 It is characterized by the reduction of 

 the awn and the consolidation of the 

 articulation. 



THE ALGERIAN OAT. 



The Algerian oat (fig. 12) is very 

 widely distributed in the whole Mediter- 

 ranean basin where it has long been 

 recognized by growers: MM. Denaiffe 



