ARRHENATHERUM. 183 



calcareous soil, but it will grow in any soil from lime- 

 stone rock to irrigated meadows. Sheep like it much, 

 and it is strongly recommended as an ingredient in 

 chalk meadows. Messrs. Wheeler give it among their 

 seeds for chalk, London clay, oolite, lias, and Wenlock 

 shale lands. 



It is frequent in Britain, and equally so in Norway, 

 Sweden, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Rus- 

 sia, and North Africa. It flowers in July and the seeds 

 ripen in August. 



Genus XIX. AERHEMTHEEUM. 



Gen. Char. Spikelets several-flowered, the lower floret in 

 each spikelet male ; the lowest flowering glume awned. 



Arrhenatherum avenaceum, Beauv. Common 

 False Oat. 



Root perennial, of two knots or swollen joints, one above 

 the other, one of them often enlarging so as to resemble a 

 bulb ; stem erect, round, polished, brittle, three feet high ; 

 joints generally smooth ; leaves rough, rather harsh, flat, 

 narrow, acute, of a darkish-green tint ; ligule short, obtuse, 

 jagged ; panicle half-whorled, the branches all leaning one 

 way ; branches simple, rough ; spikelets large, showy, erect 

 or nodding, two-flowered ; outer glumes very unequal, large, 

 smooth, thin, pointed, the outer one shorter than the florets, 

 the inner about their length, the smaller awned slightly ; 

 flowering glumes acute, roughish, seven-ribbed, the central 

 rib roughish, and bearing an awn ; awn arising from a little 

 above the base of the glume, long, slender, bent opposite 

 the apex of the floret, twice as long as the spikelet ; palea 

 narrow, acute, hairy on the edges ; upper floret perfect, but 

 with a very small awn or no awn at all ; male floret with 



