HOW TO GROW GOOD COEN. 169 



from which at least the domestic sorts in general 

 cultivation seem to have sprung. 



The Avena fatua (wild oat) is an annual grass 

 which almost universally accompanies agrarian cir- 

 cumstances ; that is to say, it seldom, if ever, occurs 

 in a truly wild aboriginal state, and is therefore not 

 found in uncultivated tracts, hut is the common 

 attendant on tillage, and in some soils is a most 

 common and disagreeable weed in various agricul- 

 tural crops, but more especially amid grain, whether 

 of wheat, barley, or oats. Sometimes it is found 

 with beans, peas, and vetches, and, indeed, it may 

 be said to be a common weed in some districts in any 

 crop from which it has not been eradicated by the 

 hoe — an operation almost impossible in grain, as its 

 growth is so much like that of the crop itself. 



It is a tall grass, rivalling the height of the finest 

 cultivated oat crop, from some forms of which, and 

 especially those with a lax panicle, it is at first not 

 easily distinguished; however, a more careful ex- 

 amination and comparison with the so-called Avena 

 sativa (cultivated oat) enables us to make out the 

 following differences : — 



Avena fatua, L. Avena falua, var. saliva. 



The valves of the inner pales, The valves of the inner pales 



which adhere to the seeds, thick, not so coarse as in A. fatua, and 



and covered with stiff hairs, quite devoid of hairs. The outer 



especially towards the base. The valve with or without an awn, 



external valve has a long stiff which when present is not so 



awn, which in the ripe seed is stiff as in the wild plant, some- 



usually twisted at the lower part, times twisted at the base, but 



and bent at nearly right angles seldom bent. Seeds large and 



at about the middle. The grain- full, forming the grain for which 



seed very small and woi'thless. the crop is cultivated. 



