GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 



49 



ences of soil and climate, from Dakota flax fields to southern Cali- 

 fornia wheat fields. The stiff and twisted awns are frequently 

 injurious to animals that eat them, causing serious irritation in 

 mouth, nostrils, and digestive tract ; also, the hard skins and thick 

 hulls of the seeds sometimes permit of their passing unharmed 

 through the intestines to be sown with 

 the droppings. (Fig. 21.) 



Wild Oats look much like the culti- 

 vated grain, the culms growing in tufts, 

 two to four feet tall, with long, smooth, 

 green leaves about a half-inch wide, and 

 loose, open seed-panicles six to ten 

 inches long, the spikelets pendulous, the 

 glumes nearly equal, slightly ridged, 

 smooth and pointed. But the lemmas 

 or hulls that enclose the seed are, in the 

 cultivated plant, smooth and thin ; those 

 of the Wild Oat are larger, much 

 thicker, covered with stiff, brown hairs, 

 and have a ring of rigidj brown hairs at 

 base ; they bear a stiff awn about an 

 inch long, which is both twisted and 

 bent; the awns of the cultivated oat 

 are much shorter and not so stiff. 

 These crooked and bristly awns are able 

 to cling to the wool of sheep and to 

 the insides of grain-sacks, which helps 

 the seeds to find new homes ; when 

 dampened they relax, and twist again 

 when dry, so boring easily into the soil. 

 Wild Oats will germinate and the young 



plant force its way to air and sunlight, even when buried four 

 or five inches deep in the ground. 



FIG. 21. Wild Oats (Avena 

 fatua). X i. 



Means of control 



Sow clean seed. No matter what its cost, it cannot be so expen- 

 sive as the fouling of a whole grain crop, sometimes to such a degree 



