A VE N A.
Gene. Char. Calyx with two valves, and with several florets; arista from the back of the
blossom, and twisted. Gen., Plant.
AVENA FLAVESCENS.
Yellow Oat-grass.
Spec. Char. Panicle expanding; spikets very small, not pendent; florets about three in
each calyx, with aristae.
Avena flavescens is a very universal plant, but more especially in fields which are of a stony or
sandy nature; its pale green foliage and yellow panicle render it observable: when young the panicle
is closed and drooping, but afterwards it is upright and fully expanded, assuming a riper yellow hue,
but finally changes to an unpleasant brown.----------Our British plants, classed under the genus Avena,
are not the most profitable, nor are they held in much estimation by the grazier; yet the flavescens
has some claim to our favour, and the only one which we could not spare from our pastures; its
product is not so large as that o f some of its companions, but it affords sufficient foliage to render
it useful, and, by being in perfection when the other grasses are usually cut for hay, we receive the
full benefit of its herbage, which we by no means do of the whole number of those admitted as pasture
grasses; and although Avena flavescens cannot certainly be received into the first ranks o f favour, yet
it may be placed among those o f an inferior or secondary order.
A, the Calyx.
B, the valves of a Floret.