78 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



that the oat was not cultivated by the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the ancient Greeks or 

 the Romans and is now cultivated in Greece only as an object of curiosity.' The oat is 

 not cultivated for human food in India.' 



This grain is not mentioned in Scripture and hence would seem to be unknown to 

 Egypt or Syria.' The plant is noticed by Virgil* in his Georgics with the implication 

 that its culture was known. Pliny ' mentions the plant. It is, hence, qtiite probable 

 that the Romans knew the oat principally as a forage crop. Pliny ' says that the Ger- 

 mans used oatmeal porridge as food. Dioscorides ^ and Galen * make similar statements, 

 but the latter adds that although it is fitter food for beasts than men yet in times of famine 

 it is used by the latter. From an investigation of the lacustrine remains of Switzerland, 

 Hear ' finds that during the Bronze age oats were known, the oat-grain being somewhat 

 smaller than that produced by our existing varieties. Turner i" observes, in 1568, that 

 the naked oat grew in Sussex, England. The bearded oat was brought from Barbary 

 and was cultivated in Britain about 1640; the brittle oat came from the south of Europe 

 in 1796; the Spanish oat was introduced in 1770; the Siberian, in 1777; the Pennsylva- 

 nian, in 1785; the fan-leaved, from Switzerland in 1791." In Scotland, the oat has long 

 been a bread grain and, about 1850, Peter Lawson '^ gives 40 varieties as cultivated. This 

 cereal was sown by Gosnold " on the Elizabeth Islands, Massachusetts, in 1602; is recorded 

 as cultivated in Newfoundland" in 1622; was growing at Lynn, Mass.,'^ in 1629-33. It 

 was introduced into New Netherland ' prior to 1626 and was cultivated in Virginia '^ 

 previous to 1648. The Egyptian, or winter oat, was known in the South in 1800. In 

 1880, 36 named kinds were grown in the state of Kansas.'* The oat grows in Norway and 

 Sweden as far north as 64 to 65 but is scarcely known in the south of France, Spain or 

 Italy, and in tropical countries its culture is not attempted. 



A. strigosa Schreb. bristle-pointed oat. meagre oat. 



Europe. Pickering '' says this plant is of the Tauro-Caspian countries; it was first 



' De Candolle, A. Geog. Bot. 2:939. 1855. 



2 Ibid. 



Ibid. 



Ibid. 



'Phillips, H. Comp. Kitch. Card. 2:<). 1831. 



Stille, A. Therap. Mat. Med. 1:125. 1874. 



' Ibid. 



' Ibid. 



" Card. Chron. io(,&. 1866. 

 Phillips, H. Comp. Kitch.Gard. 2:ii. 1831. 

 " Ibid. 



" Lawson, P. Prize Essays Highland Soc. 4:312. 1 851. 

 " U. S. Pat. Off. Rpl. 159. 1853. 

 " Ibid. 



"Wood, W. New Eng. Prosp. 81. 1634. 

 " U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 159. 1853. 

 " Ibid. 



" Kansas Bd. Agr. Rpt. 19. 1880. 

 "Pickering, C. Chron. Hisl. Pis. 1031. 1879. 



