I38 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I916. 



question of shape of kernel is reduced to the distinction of pos- 

 sibly three types. The grain of the Irish Victor lines is of medi- 

 um size, of a pale yellow color with a slightly reddish hue. It 

 b nearly cylindrical, well filled, and bluntly pointed. The 

 glumes are smooth and lustrous. There is no trace of pu- 

 bescence on the base or back of the grain. The awns, which 

 are in general a very variable character, appear very infre- 

 quently on the glumes of the Irish Victor grain. On the aver- 

 age there are only one or two awns per culm. The spikelets 

 contains as a rule two kernels. 



The type of kernel of Line 247 very closely resembles that of 

 the Irish Victor lines. 



The Banner lines have a rather coarse kernel of lighter, al- 

 most pure white color, slightly oval and more pointed than the 

 Irish Victor. The glumes are a little coarses than those of the 

 Irish Victor grain and have not the glossy appearance of the 

 former type. They show a greater tendency to develop awns. 



While there are only a few distinguishing qualitative features 

 of the grain of the pure lines, a greater difference and variation 

 is exhibited by the quantitative characters of the kernels. 



The relation between the three dimensions of the oat kernel 

 have been recognized as a valuable distinguishing character. 

 They were introduced by Kornicke and Werner 25 and also used 

 for systematic purposes by Atterberg 28 , Danaiffe and Sirodof 7 

 and Bohmer 28 . The methods used in measuring the length, 

 width, and thickness of the kernels of our lines differed from 

 those followed by the above named authors. They measured 

 the grain as a whole, i. e., enclosed in its hulls, while the data 

 given in Table 11 refer to measurements of the hulled, naked 

 kernel, i. e., the caryopsis itself. 



2S K6rnicke, F. and Werner, H. Handbuch des Getreidebaues, Berlin, 

 1885. 

 2e Atterberg, A. Loc. cit. 



27 Denaiffe and Sirodot. L'avoine, Paris, 1901. 

 28 B6hmer, — . Loc. cit, p. 26. 

 8 



