A Classification of the Varieties of Cultivated Oats 133 
extremely wide leaves, and large, coarse stems, are more frequently found 
in A. sativa orientalis than in A. sativa. Finally, the early habit of growth 
of A. sativa orientalis is always erect, while that of A. sativa may be erect, 
semi-erect, or spreading. At present A. sativa orientalis is grown in the 
same districts as is A. sativa, but less extensively. It is better adapted 
to the more northerly range of the environment of oats culture. 
There is some doubt as to the authenticity of A. sativa orientalis as a 
specific group. It is generally treated as a differentiation of the A. sativa 
group and is believed by Schulz (1913) to have been derived probably 
from a different form of A. fatua from that which gave rise to the com- 
moner form of A. sativa. In the present study, A. sativa orientalis is 
regarded as a subgroup of A. sativa, and its varieties arc placed in a special 
group merely for convenience in classification. 
The description of A. sativa is as follows: 
Culms spreading, semi-erect, or erect in early growth, large, medium, or 
small; leaves narrow to medium wide; panicles equilateral; awns occurring 
only on the outer grain and often wanting; basilar articulation of the 
grains solidified, but the upper grains are not persistent to their rhachillas, 
as in A. sterilis, and the middle and inner grains are easily removed. 
Key to varieties 
PAGE 
A. Culms spreading, or turf-like, in early growth, numerous in each plant (winter oats). 
B. Grains dark-colored, black, brown, or gray; culms glabrous; plants late in 
maturing. 
C. Grains black to brownish black; awn present or wanting, seldom geniculate; 
margins of leaves glabrous C.I. 606. 135 
CC. Grains gray to yellowish gray; awn usually present, usually geniculate; 
margins of leaves ciliate Winter Turf. 136 
BB. Grains light-colored, white to yellowish white; culms hairy near the nodes; 
plants early in maturing Culberson. 137 
AA. Culms semi-erect or erect in early growth, few to a plant (spring oats). 
B. Grains dark-colored, black to brownish red. 
C. Awns numerous in the panicle. 
D. Grains brownish red to brown; panicles stiff, the branches ascending. . . 
Black Norway. 137 
DD. Grains black or brownish black ; panicles lax, the branches drooping from 
< the middle outward. 
E. Panicles coarse; glumes 9-10-nerved; plants semi-erect in early 
growth Victor. 139 
EE. Panicles fine; glumes 8-9-nerved, seldom 10-nerved; plants erect in 
early growth. 
F. Grains glaucous; rhachilla glabrous Monarch. 139 
FF. Grains not glaucous; rhachilla haired Black Mesdag. 139 
