394 



AVEEDS AXD rSEFUL PLA^TS. 



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

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



1. A. SATi'vA, i. Panicle regular; spikelets 2-flowered, pendulous; 



florets shorter than the glumes, naked at base. 



Cultivated Avena. Oats. Common Oats. 



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



Root annual. Culm 2-4 feet bigli, smooth. Leaves 6-15 inche? long, lance-linear, 

 uervert, scabrous ; s7i.ea/7is striate, smooth, rather loose : ligule lacerate. Pcnide loose, 

 somewhat nodding, — the spikelets all pedunculate, peudnlous. Loicer rloret mostly avrned 

 on the back ; uppe)- floret awuless, with a jyedicel at the base of the upper palea, bearing at 

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

 smoothish shining sub-cartilaginous palete. 



Fields : cultivated as a fallow crop. FJ. July. Fr. August. 



Obs. Tlie 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 cx- 



FiG. 265. A spike of 2-r owed Barley i^Hordonm distichum). 266. A cluster of 3 spike- 

 lets, the central one fertile, the two lateral ones sterile. 



