6o2 WEEDS : SPECIAL 



This weed is common on stiff land, and is reproduced by 

 means of seeds which are not unfrequently met with in samples 

 of cereal grains. 



CrIlAMINE.S. — Wild Oat {Avena fatua L.). — A common 

 annual with an erect spreading panicle like the ordinary culti- 

 vated oat {Avena sativa L.). 



The flowering glume is bifid, and has a rough bent and 

 twisted awn ; the short stalk of the grain and the base of the 

 flowering glume is covered with rich brown hairs which dis- 

 tinguish it from the common oat (Fig. 155) 



It is met with among all the cereals, and sheds its grain 

 before the corn crop is ready. May be exterminated by the 

 growth of a clean root crop, and the use of seed com quite free 

 from it. 



Brome - grasses (see p. 543). — Several annual and biennial 

 species of those grasses are troublesome weeds in com and grass 

 leys generally, and are commonly distributed over the farm in 

 impure grass seeds and cereal grains. The seeds (Fig. 221) ripen 

 early, and when shed many remain in the ground several years 

 without germinating. If fed in tail com or poor hay they pass 

 through the digestive organs of animals uninjured, and are thus 

 often introduced into dung. 



Coucli, Quitch, Twitch, Scutch. — These names are applied to 

 several grasses which have well-developed spreading rhizomes. 

 The most common and most to be dreaded are Couch proper 

 {Agropyrum repens Beauv. = Triticum repens L.), Bent - grass 

 {Agrostis vulgaris With.), and marsh Bent or Fiorin {Agrostis 

 alba L.). 



The inflorescence of couch is a spike somewhat resembling an 

 ear of wheat in structure, and is only met with on plants which 

 are allowed to grow unmolested in hedges and waste ground. 

 On cultivated land it is rarely allowed to flower. 



The inflorescence of the two Bent-grasses are delicate, much- 

 branched panicles ; and therefore very different from those of 



