394 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



only) on the hack. Stamens 3. Grain oblong, grooved on the upper 

 side, hairy at summit, free but invested by the upper palea. 



1. A. sATi'vA, Z. Panicle regular; spikelets 2-flowered, pendulous; 

 florets shorter thai: the glumes, naked at base. 



Cultivated Avena. Oats. Common Oats. 



Fr. Avoine cultivee. Germ. Gemeiner Hafer. Span. Avena. 



Root annual. Culm 2-4 feet high, smooth. Leaves 6-15 inches long, lance-linear, 

 uerved scabrous ; sTieai/is striate, smooth, rather loose; Ugule lacerate. Panicle loose, 

 somewhat nodding, — the spikelets all pedunculate, pendulous. Lower -floret mostly awned 

 on the back ; upper floret awnless, with a pedicel at the base of the upper palea, bearing at 

 its summit membranaceous rudiments of a third floret. Grain closely invested by the 

 smoothish shining sub-cartilaginous palese. 



Fields : cultivated as a fallow crop. F-l. J u.\y. i?V. August. 



Obs. The native country of this plant — as of most of our cultivated 

 grains — seems to be somewhat uncertain, — though this one is said to 

 have been found native in the island of Juan Fernandez. Oats are ex- 



FiG. 165. A spike of 2 rov»«.d R-^rley (Hordeum distichum). 266. A cluster of 3 spike- 

 letSj thv, ce.-tra: <)nc f(k, \.\ tu > i\?o lateral ones sterile. 



