Avena] TRIANDRIA — DIGYNIA. 49 



Corn-fields; common both in England and Scotland. Fi. Juno, July. 



Omitted in Fl. Scot., though not an uncommon plant in that 



country. I have gathered it in the Isle of Skye, and by Dee-side above 

 Mar-Lodge, Aberdeenshire. 



3. A. pratensis, L. {iiarroiv-leaved Oat-grass) ; raceme erect 

 simple, spikelets erect oblong of about 3 — 5 florets longer than 

 the calyx, leaves glabrous finely serrated, lower ones involute, 

 sheaths scarcely scabrous. E. Bot. t. 1204. 



Dry pastures, heathy and mountainous places. Fl. July. 1^ . — Leaves 

 short, finely serrated with minute cartilaginous teeth at the margins, 

 the lower ones involute. 



4. A. alpina, Sm. {great alpine Oat-grass) ; raceme slightly 

 compound, spikelets erect oblong of about 5 — 6 florets longer 

 than the cal., leaves glabrous linear acuminated flat minutely ser- 

 rated, sheaths rounded subscabrous, culm cylindrical. Sm. in 

 Linn. Trans, r.x. p.335. — A. planiculmis, E. Bot. t. 1241. Hook. 

 Scot. V. i. p. 43, (iiot of Schrad.) 



Rocky places on mountains. FL June, July. 11 . — This, it must be 

 allowed, comes very near the last species, and is principally distinguished 

 by its stouter habit, slightly compound raceme, and especially by the 

 broader flat leaves. 



5. A. planiculmis, Schrad. (^Jlat -stemmed Oat-grass) ; panicle 

 erect compound, spikelets erect linear-oblong of 3 — 7 florets 

 much longer than the calyx, leaves scabrous broadly linear sud- 

 denly acute minutely serrated, sheaths flat sharply carinated 

 scabrous, lower part of the culm slightly compressed two-edged. 

 Schrad. Fl. Germ. v. i. p. 381. t. 6. / 2, {not E. Bot. t. 2141, 

 nor Hook. Scot.) E. Bot. Svj)pl. t. 2684. 



Glen Sannox, on the ascent of Goat-fell from Loch Rannoch, Isle of 

 Arran, Scotland ; 31r Stuart Murray. Fl. July. i;. — Mr Murray had 

 the good fortune to discover this interesting grass in 1826, and has ever 

 since cultivated it in the Glasgow Botanic Garden, where it preserves all 

 its characters, of which none are so striking as the flat, sharply carinated 

 sheaths and the great breadth of its leaves ; in cultivated specimens, 

 (where the plant is nearly .3 feet high,) h an inch in breadth. They are, 

 too, almost equal in width throughout ; at the extremity suddenly com- 

 ing to a sharp point. Panicle with many, but short branches. Spikelets 

 much longer and larger than in A. alpina. Florets smaller. 



6. A. piihescens, L. {downy Oat-grass) ; panicle erect nearly 

 simple, spikelets erect of about 3 florets, a little longer than the 

 cal., outer valves of cor. jagged, leaves plane downy edges smooth. 

 E. Bot. t. 164:0.— Trisetiim pub. Pers. 



Dry pastures, especially in chalky or limestone countries. Fl. June, 

 July. 1^. — Nothing, as it appears to me, can be more unnatural than to 

 place this plant in a difterent genus from the two preceding. In habit 

 it partakes of the character of the larger-flowered and "held species," if 

 I may so call them, of this Genus, {A. fatua and strigosa,) and of the 

 following smaller-flowered one. Mr Lindley confines the Genus Trise- 

 ium to T. pubescens and T.flavescens. M. Dumortier adds to it our 

 A. pratensis and Aira prcecox. 



VOL. I. E 



