Otb [ 2141 ]
A V E N A planiculmis.
Flat-strawed Oat-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. of 2 valves, containing several florets.
Outer valve of the corolla bearing a twisted awn
on its back.
Spec. Char. Panicle erect. Calyx containing about
five florets. Receptacles bearded upwards. Leaves
naked, finely serrated, with rough sheaths. Stem
compressed.
S yn . Avena planiculmis» Schrad. Germ. v. 1. S81.
t. 6. ƒ 2.
D i s c o v e r e d in 1807, by Mr. G. Don* on rocks upon
the summits of the highest mountains of Clova, Angusshire.
I had but just sent a description of this grass to the Linnean.
Society, by the name of A . alpina, when the 1 st vol. of Prof.
Schrader’s Flora Germanica, printed so long ago as 1800,
came to my hands. I greet with pleasure this excellent fellow
labourer in European botany, who is no compiler nor
copyist, but an original observer, and whose Flora is justly
announced by his countrymen as one of the very best that
has ever appeared.
His long description answers in almost every minutest
point to our plant, except that, according to Mr. Don, our
roots are tufted, not creeping; nor can the branches of the
panicle be called “ capillacei.” This species most agrees, in
general aspect, with A . pubescens, t. 1640, but is larger in
every part. The leaves are never clothed with soft hairs,
nor are their edges even, but finely serrated as in pratensisj
t. 1204, from which they differ in their rough, greatly elongated
sheaths. The flowers differ from both those species,
not only in their much greater size, but in the hairiness of
their partial stalk being crowded up into a very dense pencillike
tuft, under each floret, not dispersed over the whole stalk.
The roots are perennial, with strong downy fibres. Stem
from 2 to 3 feet high, according to Schrader’s remark compressed,
as well as the sheaths, which I had supposed owing
to pressure in drying. Panicle spreadjpg while in full flower
only. Glumes shining, and partly pellucid. Awns strong,
twice as long as the florets.