182 



BRITISH GRASSES. 



3. Avena flavescens, Linn. Yellow Oat. 



Root perennial, creeping ; stem erect, but curved at the 

 base, a foot and a half high, striated, jointed, smooth, 

 polished; leaves flat, acute, striated, more or less pubes- 

 cent ; joints several, smooth, often with a circle of drooping 

 hairs beneath ; sheaths very hairy ; panicle compound, erect, 

 or somewhat nodding, spreading ; rachis and branches scaly, 

 the lower branches placed in clusters of fives ; spikelets 

 numerous, of a shining gold colour, small ; outer glumes 

 acute, keeled, roughish, very unequal ; flowering glumes 

 four or five in number, tinged with green, toothed at the 

 summit, hairy at the base, awned ; awn rising from above 

 the centre of the glume, slender, shorter than in the other 

 species, bent ; palea narrow, acute, shorter, blunt, and 

 jagged at the summit. 



The Yellow Oat-grass is one of the prettiest of the 



species, its panicle is suffi- 

 ciently diffused to have a 

 claim to elegance, and the 

 brilliantly sparkling gold of 

 the spikelets gives it a very 

 characteristic charm. It a- 

 bounds in rich natural mea- 

 dows ; we have noticed it in 

 especial luxuriance in those 

 on the carboniferous lime- 

 stone formation, mingling 

 with Poas and Festucas. 

 Mr. Sinclair ascertained that 

 it would not thrive if culti- 

 vated alone. He recom- 

 mends it to be mixed with Hordeurn pratense, Cynosurus 

 cristatus, and Antho.vanthum odoratum. It prefers a 



