HOLCUS AVENACEUS. {
Oat-like Holcus.
Spec. Char. Calyx valves smooth j arista longer than the florets; root bulbous.
T his grass is a tall and conspicuous plant, delighting in woods, hedges, and shady places, being
common to all counties, and is remarkable for the bulbous nodes that are found at” the base o f the.straw,
particularly when the plant is advanced in age.------ Leaves, inner surface a little hairy, and rough j
joints woolly, wool pointing downwards.------The removal of this plant from the genus Avena, where
stationed by Linnaeus, was adopted by Gmelin, from the conformity o f the®orets with those o f Holcus
lanatus, and its total disagreement with any Avena in internal structure. In none o f the genera of
British grasses are the species so badly allied by natural characters as those arranged in the genus
Holcus j H. mollis has much similitude o f appearance to H. lanatus, but is in character an Aira;
H. avenaceus agrees in structure with the lanatus, but in general habits comes nearer Avena, and is
in fact a plant that hovers between the two, but associates so indifferently with either, that it might
be almost advisable to give it a generic character, and arrange it by itself.------The oat-like Holcus
is a very coarse plant, applicable to no agricultural purpose whatever, but often intrudes amidst corn
to the material injury of the crop, and though associating with the pasture grasses, its absence is more
to be desired than its presence j in humid stations it becomes less reedy, and something softer in its
nature, and in a young state is cropped by animals, but is of so little consequence that it might be
perhaps perfectly eradicated, and the agriculturist not be sensible o f it, or lament its loss.
A, the Calyx.
B, a set of Florets.
C, the'barren Floret.
B , the upper and fertile Floret.