GRASS OF PARNASSUS. 1 16 



The front opens and discharges the pollen away from the 

 stigma ; but it falls where insects seeking the honeyed glands 

 (using the ovary as a perch) will get it upon their forelegs, and 

 so attach it to the stigmas of the next flower they visit. 



It flowers in August and September. This is the only 

 British species. 



Oat-grass (Avena sativa). 



We have three British species of Wild Oat, but a knowledge 

 of their structure and differences may be best obtained perhaps 

 by a consideration of the cultivated Oat of our fields. It is 

 indeed probable that the cereal oat is but a cultivated form of 

 our Common Wild Oat (A.fatua), for Professor Buckman suc- 

 ceeded years ago in obtaining as the ninth generation from 

 seeds of A.fatua good crops of the farmers' varieties called 

 White Tartarian and Potato Oats. It is known that oats shed 

 in harvesting often degenerate into the wild forms. As a cereal 

 the Oat does not appear to be nearly so ancient as wheat and 

 barley, for it was not cultivated by the Hebrews, the Egyptians, 

 Greeks or Romans. 



The genus is distinguished by having its flowers in a lax- 

 panicle, the spikelets borne principally upon long, slender 

 stalks. Each spikelet contains two or more flowers, of which 

 the upper one is usually imperfect, and each is armed with a 

 long twisted and bent awn. There are two outer glumes, each 

 flowering glume deeply notched, the awn arising from the 

 bottom of the notch. The pale is two-nerved, the scales two- 

 toothed, the stamens three. The ovary has a hairy top and two 

 short styles with feathery stigmas. The fruit adheres to the 

 glume. 



I. Wild Oat (A vena, fatua). An annual with two- or three-flowered spikelets 

 which droop at length. The empty glumes with nine nerves, flowering glumes 

 covered with stiff hairs. Brown awn much bent, the lower half twisted. Leaves 

 flat and roughish ; sheaths smooth. Cornfields. June to August. 



II. Narrow-leaved Oat (A. pratensis). Perennial ; not to be sought in the place 



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