GRASSES OF IOWA. 



191 



Bentham and Hooker give the number of species as 3; the same 

 number is given by Hackel, although some authors give the number as 

 6. Native to Europe, northern Africa and western Asia; one species 

 widely cultivated in eastern North America, and naturalized to a con- 

 siderable extent on the Pacific coast. 



ARRHENATHERUM AVENACEUM. 



Arrhenatherum avenaceum Beauv. Agrost. 152. 1812. Watson and 

 Coulter. Gray. Man. Bot. 652. pi. 12. 1890. (6 ed.) 



Arrhenathernm clatius Beauv. Scribner. Grasses, of Tenn. Bull. Univ. 

 Tenn. Agrl. Exp. Sta. 7: 83. f. wg. 1894. 



Arrhenatherum elatius (L.) Beauv. Nash in Britton and Brown, ill. Fl. 

 1: m.f.396. 1896. Bull. U. S. Dept. Agrl. Div. Agros. 7: 173. /. 167. 1900, 

 (3 ed.). Beal. Grasses N. A. 2: 387. 1896. 



Avena elatior L. Sp. PI. 79. 1753 



DESCRIPTION. 

 ( )at Grass. A tall, per- 

 ennial grass, 2 to 4 feet ( 5- 

 10 dm.) high, rather spar- 

 ingly leafy, with a narrow, 

 terminal, many-flowered pan- 

 icle, 6 to 12 inches (1^-3 

 dm.) long; the branches 

 spreading during flowering. 

 Spikelets 4 to 5 lines (8-10 

 mm.) long, the second glume 

 larger than the first, three- 

 nerved and about equalling 

 the florets. Awn geniculate 

 near the middle, closely 

 twisted below, divergent 

 above. Grain pubescent, en- 

 closed within the fruiting 

 glume and palea, but free 

 from them. In fields and 

 waste places, Maine and On- 

 tario to Georgia and Ten- 

 nessee, also on the Pacific 

 coast. June to August. Tall 

 meadow oat grass has es- 

 caped from cultivation in 

 different parts of the state. 

 It has never met with much 



Fig. 135. Arrhenatherum avenaceum— a, spike- f . , 



lets; b, flowering glumes. (Div. Agros. U. s. favor as a forage plant among 

 Dept. Agrl. ) the farmers of the state. 



