THE GENERA AND THEIR SPECIES. 79 



43. flavescens 24 in. Yellow Oat. Spikelets erect; ligule 

 truncate. 



41. A. fatua Cornfields everywhere. June and July. 

 Root annual, small, thickened at base, whorled, fibres downy. 

 Stem erect, striated, smooth, glossy. Leaves linear, thin, broad, 

 flaccid, basal margin not rough upwards, ribs low and flat, 

 third, fourth, and fifth the strongest, apex acute. Sheaths thin, 

 keeled, edges frequently filamentous ; ligule short, obtuse, hairy 

 on back. Panicle loose, large, at first unilateral then spreading, 

 much branched, branches alternate, thickened towards apex, nod- 

 ding. Spikelets loose, drooping or pendulous, florets many, with 

 fulvous hairs at base. Glumes equal, thin, acute, ribs eight, each 

 with a double line of scabrous points. Outer palea thick, ovate, 

 bifid at apex, dark brown, with yellow hairs at base, ribs less than 

 eight, back rounded and bristly, with an awn below the middle 

 twice as long as glumes, jointed, twisted at lower end and then 

 bent and straightened ; inner palea shorter than outer, ovate- 

 lanceolate, ribbed along margin. 



Variety — 



A. strigosa 30 in. Glumes large, hairy on lower half ; apex 

 bifid and pointed. 



This plant affords a noteworthy instance of the limitations 

 of popular metaphor. Sowing wild oats is a phrase that does not 

 appeal to the botanist, for wild oats are very beautiful, and from 

 the wild oats by persistent collection and sowing came the edible 

 and profitable species, A.sativa, the food of horses and men. 

 Further, one of our writers on grasses, Miss Plues, recommends 

 wild oats for a lady's bouquet ! The grain of the oat, like that 

 of all the genus, has compound starch grains, thereby distinguish- 

 ing it, microscopically, from that of our other cereals 



42. A. pratensis Chalk meadows and other dry pastures 

 of Europe and Russian Asia. July and August. Roots 

 perennial, tufted and slightly creeping, fibrous, downy. Stem 

 erect, simple, rigid, striated, roughish. Leaves mostly radical, 

 stiff, linear, thick, short, narrow, edges rough, hooded at apex. 



