AVENA. 



AVENUE. 



*at it as readily as they do most others. The 

 seed is very small and light ; but it vegetates 

 freely if sown in the autumn, or not too early 

 in the spring. I have sown the seeds of this 

 grass in almost every month of the year, and 

 after making due allowance for the state of the 

 weather, the third week in May, and the first 

 week of August to September, were evidently 

 the best. It flowers in England in the fust, 

 and often in the second week of July, and ri- 

 pens the seed in the beginning of August. The 

 value of the grass, at the time of flowering, is 

 to that at the time the seed is ripe, as 5 to 3. 



The value of the grass, at the time of flower- 

 ing, exceeds that of the latter-math, as 3 to 1 ; 

 and the value of the grass at the time the seed 

 is ripe is to that of the latter-math, as 9 to 5. 



Avena pratenais. Meadow oat-grass. This 

 species of oat-grass is much less common 

 than the Avena pubcscens, or Avena flavescens. 

 It is found more frequent on chalky than on 

 any other kind of soils: I have also found it 

 in moist meadows as well as on dry heaths. 

 This property of thriving on soils of such 

 opposite natures is not common to the differ- 

 ent species of grass. When this grass was 

 planted in an irrigated meadow, the produce 

 did not appear to exceed that which it afford- 

 ed on a dry elevated soil, though it appeared 

 more healthy, by the superior green colour 

 of the foliage; and it thus appears to thrive 

 under irrigation. The produce and nutri- 

 tive powers, however, seem to be inferior to 

 many other species of the secondary grasses. 

 The produce or value of the yellow oat is su- 

 perior to that of the meadow oat in the pro- 

 portion nearly of 7 to 3. The downy oat-grass 

 is also superior to the meadow oat-grass 

 in the quantity of nutritive matter it affords 

 from the crops of one season, in the proportion 

 nearly of 3 to 2. From these facts and obser- 

 vations it cannot justly be recommended for 

 cultivation in preference to either of the two 

 species with which it has now been compared. 

 Its nutritive matter contains a less proportion 

 of bitter extractive and saline matters than 

 any other of the oat-grasses that have been 

 submitted to experiment. It flowers in July, 

 and the seed is ripe in August. 



Avena pubescens. Downy oat-grass. [See 

 Plate 6, b.] This grass has properties which 

 recommend it to the notice of the agriculturist, 

 being hardy, and a small impoverisher of the 

 soil ; the reproductive power is also consider- 

 able, though the foliage does not attain to a 

 great length if left growing. Like the Poa 

 prafenxis, it seldom or never sends forth any 

 flowering culms, after the first are cropped, 

 which is a property of some value for the pur- 

 pose of permanent pasture, or dry soils, whi",h 

 are sooner impoverished by the growth of 

 plants than those that are moist. Among the 

 secondary grasses, therefore, I hardly know 

 one whose habits promise better for the pur- 

 pose now spoken of. The nutritive matter it 

 affords contains a greater proportion of the 

 bitter extractive principle than the nutritive 

 matter of those grasses that affect a similar 

 soil, which lessens its merits in those respects 

 and must prevent its being employed in any 

 considerable quantity as a constituent of a 

 128 



mixture of grasses for laying down such soils 

 to grass. In one part of Woburn Park, where 

 the soil is light and silicious, the downy oat 

 grows in considerable abundance. The downy 

 hairs which cover the surface of the leaves of 

 this grass when growing on poor, dry, or 

 chalky soils, almost disappear when cultivated 

 on richer soils. The crop at the time of flower- 

 ing is superior to that at the time the seed is 

 ripe, in the proportion nearly of 5 to 3. The 

 grass of the latter-math, and that at the time 

 the seed is ripe, are of equal proportional va- 

 lue. It flowers in the second or third week 

 of June, and the seed is ripe about the begin- 

 ning or in the middle of July. 



[Avena elativr. See ANDKS GRASS. 



Avena saliva. Cultivated oats. 



Avena slerilis. Animated oats, grown in 

 gardens as a curiosity.] 



AVENS, COMMON, or HERB BENNET 

 (Geum urbanum). An indigenous perennial 

 plant, which grows plentifully in woods and 

 about shady dry hedges, psoducing small bright 

 yellow flowers from May till August. The 

 stalks of this useful plant attain two feet high, 

 they are erect, round, finely, hairy branched at 

 the upper part, bearing several flowers. The 

 root consists of a root-stock and many stout 

 brown fibres, which are astringent, and in some 

 degree aromatic in spring. They are said to 

 impart an agreeable clove-like flavour when 

 infused in beer or wine. In medicine, the 

 powdered root of the common avens has been 

 employed with good effect in conjunction with 

 Peruvian bark, or quinine, in cases of ague 

 and intermittent fever, and it is also valuable 

 in long-standing cases of diarrhosa, and in the 

 last stage of dysentery. The dose is from 

 thirty to sixty grains. Sheep are extremely 

 fond of its herbage, which may likewise, when 

 young, be used for culinary purposes, and 

 especially in the form of salad. It is stated 

 (Trans, of Swed. Acad.} that if a portion of the 

 dried root be placed in a bag and hung in a 

 cask of beer, it will prevent the beer from 

 turning sour. There is a variety of this plant 

 called the great-flowered avens. (Eng. Flora, 

 vol. ii. p. 429 ; Willich's Dom. Ency.) 



AVENS, WATER. A variety of the before- 

 named plant, which is common in moist mea- 

 dows and woods, especially in mountainous 

 countries, and is not rare in the north of Eng<- 

 land, Scotland, Wales, nor even in Norfolk. 

 It has drooping flowers, which distinguish it 

 from the common avens. It is readily pro- 

 duced by transplanting the wild roots into a 

 dry gravelly soil, by which the flowers become 

 red, as well as double and proliferous, with 

 many strange changes of leaves into petals, 

 and the contrary. (Smith's Eng. Flora.) 



AVENUE (Fr.). An alley or walk planted 



on each side with trees. These kinds of walks 



were formerly much more the fashion than 



they are at present. When they are to be 



made, the common elm answers wery well for 



the purpose in most, grounds, except such as 



are very wet and shallow, and is preferred to 



j most other trees, because it bears cutting, 



I heading, or lopping in any manner. The rough 



Dutch elm is approved by some, because of its 



! quick growth; and it is a tree that will nr* 



