Mixtures, 
Allied species. 
Explanation 
of plate. 
Botanical 
description. 
44 
For fodder, False oat-grass should be sown only in mixtures. Pure sowing has various 
drawbacks: — the seed is too expensive, the quality of the produce is inferior to that of 
a mixture, and the duration is shorter, A proper percentage added to a mixture increases 
the »top grass« and for this purpose False oat-grass is yery appropriate. It is specially 
suitable for short leys or permanent pastures on warm soils with a warm exposure, In 
such cases it may form as much as 20 % of the whole mixture. As the soil becomes 
heavier and as the amount of moisture increases, the percentage of this seed should be 
diminished. Mixed with clover it is not so valuable for a one year ley as Italian rye-grass, 
but for a clover ley of 2 or 3 years, it is more suitable, and gives a larger yield. 
Externally it somewhat resembles Downy oal-grass (Avena pubescens). The latter is distinguished, 
by its shorter leaves, by ils culm becoming red after flowering, and more especially by the hairy sheaths 
of its radical leaves. ‘The fruit is more slender, and has long hair on the base and stalk; the colour 
is also darker, 
VI. Yellow oat-grass. 
Avena flavescens, L. or Trisetum flavescens, P. de Beatyois. 
Fig. A. Entire plant, with the panicle somewhat contracted. 
» B. Panicle in flower, spreading, 
,, 1. Spikelet in flower, side-view, shewing the hairy axis and three flowers. 
,, 2. Flower, with lower and upper pales. 
, 3. Flower and upper pale, shewing the two lodicules, and the pistil, 
» &. False fruit, side-view, 
5. The hairy stalk detached. 
, 6, False fruit, ventral surface, shewing the pair of bristles al the apex of the lower pale, 
7. Caryopsis, side-view. 
8. Caryopsis, transverse section, 
, 9. Diagram of the three-flowered spikelet. 
» 10. The ligule. 
, 14, Transverse section of a leaf-blade (after Lund), shewing the ribs and the hair, 
Yellow oat-grass forms a loose tuft of grass (fig. A), The lateral shoots are at first intra-vaginal, 
but they soon burst the sheaths which enclose them, The internodes beneath the ground rarely leng- 
then out into stolons. The culm is erect, often slightly hairy beneath the nodes, and may reach a height 
of two feet. The /ea/-blades are flat, soft, finely ribbed, and more or less hairy (fig. 11), The leaf-sheath 
is also hairy, especially at the base (fig. A.). The ligule is short and obtuse (fig. 10). The inflorescence 
is a panicle, narrow and contracted when young, but on flowering the branches spread out (fig. A). 
The spikelets are then shining and golden yellow, but later, they become somewhat brown. The branches 
are very fine and somewhat rough, The spikelets are numerous and small, usually three-flowered (figs. 1 
and $)) and cylindrical before flowering ; later, the flowers spread out, the cylindrical form is lost, and 
the colour becomes golden yellow, The axis of the spikelet is hairy (fig. 1). The glwnes are two, shorter 
than the pales; the lower (figs. 1 and 9) is one-ribbed and half as long as the wpper, (fig. 1, 9) which is 
three-ribbed, and lanceolate. The lower pale (fig. 1, 2, 4, 6, 9) is five-ribbed, and bifid at the apex; 
a fine bent awn longer than the pale (fig. 1, 4, 6) springs from its back. The two bristle-like teeth 
formed by the bifid apex of the pale (fig. 6) along with the awn, form 3 bristles, hence the generic 
name Trisetum, which is sometimes applied to this grass. The upper pale (figs, 1—4, 6, 9) is membran- . 
