Trabut: Origin of Cultivated Oats 



83 



THE ABYSSINIAN OATS 



1, 2, 3, 4, Ave7ia wiestii, a hairy form growing wild in Abyssinia, and seemingly adapted to 

 desert regions. 5, 6,7, A. abyssinica, a cultivated form grown by the Abyssinians, 

 not for grain, but for forage. In cultivation, all the transition stages between these 

 two have been found. They offer a rich field to plant breeders, in the production of 

 varieties of oat adapted to severe desert conditions. (Fig. 20). 



OTHER SPECIES EXAMINED. 



A. barbata. The creation by Linnaeus 

 of an artificial species (A. sativa), 

 comprising all the forms of Avena not 

 disarticulating themselves, has for a 

 long time misled searchers wishing to 

 clear up the origin of A. sativa. 



If we are able to admit as demons- 

 trated that A . sterilis and A . fatua have 

 transformed themselves into two culti- 

 vated oats, it remains for us to examine 

 the other species to see if they have not 

 undergone the same modifications by 

 ctdtivation and if they have not become 

 usable after having been weeds. 



In examining A. strigosa Schreber, 

 which has also been included with 

 A. sativa, there is little delay in finding 

 all the characters of A. barbata, not 

 taking into account the functioning of 

 the articulations and the pilosity, two 

 fluctuating characters without value, as 

 we have seen in A . sterilis and A . fatua. 

 A. strigosa is indeed the glabrous form 

 which has lost the fragility of the articu- 

 lations of A. barbata. 



Haussknecht (1. c. 1894, p. 20) has 

 observed the intermediate form, var. 

 solida, but it appears very rare. In 

 examining a great number of plants of 

 A . barbata, I have never found anything 

 other than a three-flowered, robust 



form with large spikelets, different from 

 barbata triflora Wilk, and from the two- 

 flowered forms with lagre spikelets 

 growing in grain fields. 



In ctdtivating A. strigosa, I have 

 obtained transition forms towards A. 

 barbata, with the spikelets of the lemmae 

 almost as pilose as in the wild type, but 

 with more solid articulations. 



A. brevis Rotl which has been des- 

 cribed as a form of A . sativa is connected 

 with A. strigosa, derived of course from 

 A. barbata. 



THE ABYSSINIAN OAT. 



Avena abyssinica. My study of 

 A. barbata for the Flore de I'Algerie led 

 me to separate the southern forms and 

 those from the Sahara under the names 

 of wsivieties, juscescens and minor. Haus- 

 sknecht has since (1894) identified these 

 desert forms with Avena wiestii Steudel. 



A. Wiestii differs little morphologi- 

 cally from A. barbata, but it is neverthe- 

 less a form interesting because of its 

 habitat. In northern Africa, it appears 

 very widely distributed in sub-saharan 

 localities. In Cyrenaica, Taubert col- 

 lected at Derna a form solida (exsicc. 

 no. 507) which is the transition stage 

 toward cultivable forms. I have re- 

 ceived from Abyssinia, from Dr. Bald- 



