566 



CVII. GKAMINE^., 



[^Avena. 



Dry pastures, heathy and mountainous places. — j3. ^* moist shady 

 ^voods near the sea, in the neighbourhood of Edhiburgh." — y, Hin-h- 

 land mountains. If.. 6, 7. — Lower peduncles mostly in pairs, 

 one longer than the other, and both simple ; sometimes the longer 

 one bears 2 or rarely S distant spikelets, so that the whole panicle 

 has a lax appearance, very different from what we find in the next; 

 but as it is now ascertained that A, pratensis has occasionally the sheaths 

 flattened, there is a possibility that A, planiculmis may be only another 



.form of it. 



4. A. planiculmis Schrad. (^ flat- stemmed 0.) ; panicle erect 

 compound interrupted, spikelets erect nearly cylindricallinear- 

 oblong of 5 — 7 florets, lower floret longer than the longest 

 glume, leaves scabrous broadly linear suddenly acute minutely 

 serrated, sheaths flat sharply carinated scabrous, lower part of 

 the culm slightly compressed two-edged, E. B- S. t. 2684. 



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

 of Arran, Scotland: Mr. 5'^mr^ iVfwrray (1826). 1/-. 7* This has been 

 cultivated ever since 1826 (from roots brought by Mr. Murray, and 

 who alone here found 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, which in 

 cultivated specimens (where the plant is nearly S feet high) are ^ an 

 inch in breadth. Their width, too, is almost equal throughout, at the 

 extremity suddenly coming to a sharp point. Panicle with many, 

 ei'ect, rather rigid branches, Spikelets much longer and larger than 

 in A. alpina, the larger glume scarcely reaching half-way to the sum- 

 mit : in A, pratensis and A. alphia Sm. the larger glume is about two 

 thirds (or more) of the length of the whole spikelet. 



5. A. 2^uhescens L. (down?/ O.); panicle erect nearly simple, 

 spikelets erect of about 2 or 3 florets, scarcely longer than the 

 glumes, lower leaves plane and the sheaths downy, edges smooth. 

 E. B. t. 1640. Trisetum Per5. : Pa?m. Gr, t. 53. 



Dry pastures, especially in chalky or limestone countries. "2/.. 6, 7. 



*.** Smaller glume 1-nerved, larger 3-rihhed, Outer glumella keeled^ 



with faint lateral nerves, ending in two hristles, Spikelets erect. 

 Ovary glabrous, Ligule short and obtuse. Perennial plants* 



-. 



6. A. flavescens L. {yellow 0.) ; panicle much branched lax, 

 spikelets of about 3 florets equal in length to the longer of the 

 very unequal glumes, outer glumella with two terminal bristles, 

 lower leaves and sheaths hairy. B.B. t. 952. Trisetum P^^to. : 

 Parn, Gr, t. 54. 



Dry meadows and pastures, frequent. 2/. . 7. — It has the smallest 

 flowers of all our Oat-grasses, and may readily "be distinguished by 

 that circumstance, by the two terminal bristles on the outer glumella, 

 and by the very unequal glumes. Pedicels of the florets downy 

 with a small tuft of hairs at the top, and there is also a terminal 

 abortive floret, reduced to a stalked bristle, hairy at its base. 



i 



