AVENA. 181 



panicle almost simple, spike-like, erect ; rachis nearly 

 smooth ; branches rough; spikelets smaller than in the 

 normal form ; outer glumes very unequal, keeled, sca- 

 brous, pointed, interior one largest, both membrana- 

 ceous, naked ; florets three, the third often abortive ; 

 flowering glume roughish on the keel, tinged with red- 

 dish-purple ; palea thin, transparent, flat, shorter. 



This variety is more popular than the normal form 

 for agricultural purposes. Messrs. Wheeler, of Glou- 

 cester, who have taken immense pains in the study and 

 cultivation of artificial grasses, recommended the downy 

 variety of the Perennial Oat-grass for chalk lands and 

 for light soil on sands. 



A. pratensis, var. planiculmis, is a luxuriant variety ; 

 in cultivation it grows three feet high, and has its 

 sheaths somewhat flattened. It was found wild in 1826, 

 in Glen Sannox, on the ascent of Goatfell, in the Isle of 

 Arran, by Mr. Stuart Murray. This variety and the 

 pubescens are accounted distinct species by several bota- 

 nists of high repute. Sir J. E. Smith and Dr. Parnell 

 both consider the latter an independent species. 



A. pratensis, var. longifolia, has long, narrow, flat 

 leaves, upper one rough above and below, the second 

 rough above but smooth below; radical leaves quite 

 smooth behind, glaucous, and as long as the stem, which 

 is rough with ascending bristles. This variety is re- 

 corded by Dr. Parnell as indigenous in moist shady 

 woods about Edinburgh. 



A. pratensis, var. latifolia, of Dr. Parnell, agrees 

 with the description already given of var. planiculmis, 

 and is doubtless identical with it. 



A. pratensis differs from A . flavescens in the spikelets 

 being larger and fewer. 



