TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Avena. 
195 
( Root somewhat creeping. Leaves more or less pubescent. FI. Brit. E.) 
About half a yard high. Leaves yellow green. Panicle much branched, 
yellow green, changing to shining golden yellow; diffuse whilst in flower, 
upright and compact when in seed. Spikets short, two or three-flowered, 
one floret often imperfect. Awn nearly twice as long as the blossom. It 
may be distinguished at a considerable distance by the colour of the fo¬ 
liage as well as that of the panicle. 
Yellow Oat Grass. ( Golden Oat. Welsh: Ceirch-wellt melynaidd. E.) 
Meadows, pastures, hills, particularly in a calcareous soil. P. July.* 
A. praten'sis. Panicle spike-like ,* calyx five flowered (florets longer 
than the calyx; partial stalk all over hairy; leaves involute, 
finely serrated, naked ; sheath smooth. Sm. ; receptacle villous. 
Hort. Gram. — FI. Dan. 1083— E. Bot. 1204. E.)— Leers 9. 1— Bay 21. 
1 — Vaill. 18. 1 — H. Ox. viii. 7. 21 — Mont. 66. 
Straw quite smooth, twelve to eighteen inches high. Leaves rather rough, 
doubled together. Panicle about four inches long, branches upright, 
undivided, except one or two at the bottom. Spikets strap-shaped, upper 
ones nearly sessile. Awns longer than the blossom. 
Meadow Oat Grass. (Narrow-leaved Oat Grass. Welsh: Ceirch~ 
wellt culddail. E.) Heaths and high chalky lands. Norfolk, very fre¬ 
quent. Mr. Woodward. King’s Park, Edinburgh. Sir J. E. Smith. 
(Upper part of Cefn Rocks, above the cave, in the parish of St. Asaph ; 
and Llandidno Rocks, Carnarvonshire. Mr. Griffith. Round Table, and 
above Carreg Onen, Anglesey. Welsh Bot. E.) P. July.t 
A. strigo'sa. Panicle oblong, compact, pointing one way ; florets in 
pairs, with two awns at the end, and a jointed awn on the back. 
Schreb. 
( E. Bot. 1266. E.) 
Straw and leaves naked. Retz. Calyx as long as the spiket. Florets 
smooth, the terminal awns short, fine, red, but white at the end. Awn 
from the back, twice the length of the blossom. Not described by any 
writer. Schreb. ( Stem a yard high. Leaves more or less glaucous, 
rough; and resembles the common cultivated oat, A. sativa , but the panicle 
is strikingly different, being somewhat crowded, its branches leaning all 
to one side. E. Bot. 
* Mr. Swayne says it is the best of the genus for the use of the farmer; (and Mr. 
Salisbury reports favourably of it. Though Mr. Sinclair proves its produce not to be 
very great, nor its nutritive qualities considerable; combined with other grasses, he 
recommends it for elevated and exposed situations. It probably may be more accep¬ 
table to sheep than to other cattle. Several of our pasture grasses are frequently injured 
by drought acting upon the stalk, not molesting the root, but withering the succulent 
base of the straw, which arises from the upper joint; in consequence of which, the 
panicle and connecting straw dry away, while the foliage and lower leaves remain un¬ 
injured. None are so obnoxious to this injury as the present species, and in some 
seasons almost the whole of its panicle will be withered in a field of surrounding ver¬ 
dure, especially where the herbage is reserved for mowing. Journ. Nat. It is capa¬ 
ble of being manufactured into straw plat for hats equal in fineness and evenness to the 
Leghorn. The Society of Arts, both in London and Dublin, have bestowed honorary 
rewards for this discovery. E.) 
f (This species is remarkable for thriving, either on exposed dry situations, or under 
irrigation ; but its produce and nutritive powers are inferior to those of many other 
secondary grasses, Hort, Gram, E.) 
