sturtevant's notes on edible plants 77 



among grain. It is cultivated in mountainous districts of Europe, as in those of Auvergne 

 and Forez, because it ripens quickly, where the country people call it piedo de mouche, 

 or fly's leg, because of the appearance of the dark awns.' In some parts of France, on 

 accovmt of its excellence for fodder, it is called avoine a fourrage. 



A. fatua Linn, drake, flayer, potato oat. Tartarean oat. wild oat. 



Europe, the Orient and Asia. This is the common wild oat of California. It may 

 have been introduced by the Spaniards but it is now spread over the whole country many 

 miles from the coast. The grain is gathered by the Indians of California and is used as 

 a bread com. In 1852, Professor Buckman ^ sowed a plat of ground with seeds collected 

 in 1851 and in 1856 had for the produce poor, but true, samples of what are known 

 as the potato and Tartarean oat. In i860, the produce was good white Tartarean and 

 potato oats. 



A. nuda Linn, naked oat. peel corn, pillcorn. 



Southern Europe. This is probably an oat produced by cultivation. The Chinese 

 are said to cultivate a variety of it with a broad, flat rachis. It was growing in England, 

 according to Turner, in 1538. It is now, and has been for some time, among the seeds 

 of our seedsmen. 



A. orientalis Schreb. Siberian oat. Tartarean oat. 



Southern Europe and the Orient. Although the name leads to the supposition that 

 this oat had its origin in the dry table-lands of Asia, yet we are not aware, says Lindley,' 

 that any evidence exists to show that it is so. We only know it as a cultivated plant. 

 Phillips* says the Siberian oat reached England in 1777, and Unger' says it was brought 

 from the East to Europe at the end of the preceding century. 



A. sativa Linn. ha.ver. oat. 



The native land of the common oat is given as Abyssinia by Pickering.' linger^ 

 says the native land is unknown, although the region along the Danube may pass as such. 

 The oat is probably a domesticated variety of some wild species and may be A. strigosa 

 Schreb., fovmd wild in grain fields throughout Europe. Professor Buckman believed 

 A. fatua Linn., to be the original species, as in eight years of cultivation he changed this 

 plant into good cultivated varieties. Unger * says the Celts and the Germans, as far 

 as can be ascertained, cultivated this oat 2000 years ago, and it seems to have been dis- 

 tributed from Europe into the temperate and cold regions of the whole world. It was 

 known to the Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks and Romans. De CandoUe,' however, writes 



' Bon Jard. 655. 1882. 



' Buckman, J. Treas. Bot. i: 11. 1870. 



Morton Cyc. Agr. 1:171. 1869. 



Phillips, H. Comp. Kitch. Card. 2:12,. 1831. 



Unger, F. V. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 302. 1859. 



Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 341. 1879. 

 ' Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 302. 1859. 

 Ibid. 



De CandoUe, A. Geog. Bot. 2:939. 1855- 



