AVENA FATUA. 175 



AVENA FATUA. 



LINNAEUS. SMITH. HOOKER AND ARNOTT. PARNELL. KNAPP. 



WILLDENOW. MARTYN. DON. SCHRADER. 

 HOST. LEERS. EHRHART. SCHREBER. KOCH. LINDLEY. WITHERING. 



HUDSON. KUNTH. HULL. RELHAN. 

 SIBTHORP. ABBOT. WINCH. MACREIGHT. BABINGTON. DEAKIN. RALFS. 



PLATE LI. 



The Wild Oat -Grass. 

 Avena Oat. Fatua Wild. 



AVENA. Linnaeus. The Oat-Grass has a lax panicle and laterally com- 

 pressed spikelets. Awns long and twisted. In this family is the Avena 

 sativa, or Cultivated Oat, an introduced species. Amongst our indigenous 

 species are Avena fatua, A. strigosa, A. pratensis, A. pubescens, A. flavescens, 

 and A. planiculmis ; the latter has only been collected by one botanist, Mr. 

 Murray, who discovered it at Glen Sannox, in the Isle of Arran. 



THE Wild Oat-Grass is a common species in England and Ireland, 

 yet much rarer in Scotland. It chiefly grows in corn-fields, and 

 is a troublesome weed. 



The awns, from their extreme sensitiveness to the moisture of the 

 air, are manufactured into Hygrometers. The florets are also occasion- 

 ally used as artificial flies for trout-fishing. 



Native of France, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Lapland, Asia, 

 and Northern Africa. 



Stem upright, circular, and polished, having four or five flat, linear, 

 rough, minutely-ribbed leaves, with smooth striated sheaths. Joints 

 smooth. Inflorescence simple-panicled. Panicle spreading, and of large 

 size. Rachis smooth, branches rough. Spikelets ample, pendulous, 

 ovate-lanceolate in form; of two (sometimes three) florets. Calyx of 

 two equal-sized, smooth, membranous, acute glumes, the exterior one 



