352 



ELEMENTARY STUDIES IN BOTANY 



and North Dakota. This means that 

 the states of the Upper Mississippi Valley 

 region produce most of our oats (Fig. 

 28). 



54. Structure of oats. The structure 

 of oats is more like that of the ordinary 

 grasses than is the structure of corn. The 

 flowers are in a loose, branching cluster 

 (panicle), each little group of flowers 

 (spikelet) with a stalk of its own (Figs. 29 

 and 30). Each spikelet consists of two 

 relatively large bracts (glumes) that sur- 

 round usually two flowers (Fig. 30, B). 

 Each flower consists of a pistil (whose 

 ovary becomes the grain) and three sta- 

 mens infolded by a bract (palet) , and usu- 

 ally the palet of one of the flowers bears 

 on its back (Fig. 30, C) a long, bristle-like 

 appendage (awn). It is these awns that 

 in many grasses, as the other cereals, form 

 the so-called " beard." The prominent 

 feature that distinguishes oats from 

 wheat, barley, and rye is the loose, 

 branching cluster of stalked spikelets. In 

 these other cereals the spikelets stand close 

 together on the main axis, forming the 

 cluster called a spike, which is the so-called 

 " head " of wheat, etc. 

 FIG. 29. Oats, showing 55. Cultivation of oats, The oat is a 



general habit of plant ; , , . . i v 



flower cluster distin- hardy cereal, doing well in a cool climate 

 S h ta b n y chSg g S and upon a light soil, and therefore it is 

 each spikelet on a sien- o- rown chiefly in northern countries. In 



der stalk. J 



fact, it is not at all suited to the ordinary 

 tropical conditions. The range of conditions in which it will 

 grow is somewhat extensive, including light soils and heavy 



