Arena.] 
evil. GRAMINE.E. 
56o 
Corn-fields, frequent. ©. 6 — 8. — Culm 2 — 3 feet high. Leaves 
linear-lanceolate. Ligule obtuse, or emarginate. Glumes large, 
membranous, ovato-lanceolate, shining at the margins, keeled, acumi- 
nate, many-ribbed. Outer glumella with long fulvous hairs at its 
base, bifid at the point. Awn of each floret long and twisted, very 
hygrometrical. — The cultivated oat, A. sativa, differs from it in 
having one or more upper florets imperfect and awnless, in the shorter 
awn and absence of fulvous hairs at the base of the florets. Mr. 
Bentham unites it, and also the following, to A. fatua. 
2. A. strig6sa Sehreb. ( Bristle-pointed. O.) ; panicle erect, 
branches all secund, spikelets of 2 perfect florets each awned as 
long as the glumes and terminated by 2 long straight bristles. 
E. B. t. 1266: Pam. Gr. t. 26. 
Corn-fields ; common both in England and Scotland. 0. 6, 7. 
— Ligule oblong, often incise. Very much like A. sativa, but readily 
distinguished from it, as well as from A. fatua, whether as a variety 
or a species, by the florets ending in two long bristles. 
** Smaller glume 1 — 3- nerved, larger one 3-nerved. Outer glumella 
distinctly 5-ribbed. Spikelets erect. Ovary hairy at the apex. 
Carynpsis furrowed along one side. Ligule acute. Perennial 
plants. 
3. A .pratensis L. (narrow-leaved perennial ().); panicle erect 
simple or slightly compound lax, spikelets erect oblong com- 
pressed of 3 — 6 florets, lower floret scarcely as long as the larger 
glume, leaves glabrous but more or less scabrous on the surface. 
— a. vulgaris; lower leaves involute, sheaths cylindrical nearly 
smooth, spikelets 3 — 5-flowered. E. B. t. 1204. Trisetum 
Pam. Gr. t. 52. — f3. longifolia ; lower leaves long flat and linear, 
sheaths much compressed slightly keeled roughish. Trisetum 
Pam. Gr. t. 52. — y. alpina; lower leaves short flat, sheaths cy- 
lindrical or compressed roughish, spikelets 5 — 6-llowered. Tri- 
setum Pam. Gr. t. 53. A. alpina Sm. A. planiculmis Sm. : 
E. B. t. 2141. 
Dry pastures, heathy and mountainous places. — /3. “ moist shady 
woods near the sea, in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh.”— y. High- 
land mountains. If.. 6, 7. — Tufted, or with a very shortly creeping 
rhizome. Lower peduncles mostly in pairs, one longer than the 
other, and both simple; sometimes the longer one bears 2 or rarely 
3 distant spikelets, so that the whole panicle has a lax appearance, 
very different from what we find in the next ; but as it is now ascer- 
tained that A. pratensis has occasionally the sheaths flattened, there is 
a possibility that A. planiculmis may be only another form of it. 
Mr. Bentham unites them as also A. pubescens. 
4. A. planiculmis Schrad. (flat-stemmed O.) ; panicle erect 
compound interrupted, spikelets erect nearly cylindrical linear- 
oblong of 5 — 7 florets, lower floret longer than the longest 
