GRASS FAMILY. 



395 



tensively cultivated, in this country, chiefly as food for horses. Dr. 

 JOHNSON took occasion, in compiling his Dictionary, to fling a sarcasm 

 at the Scotch, by defining oats to be the food of horses in England, and 

 of men in Scotland as if the effects of climate were a fit subject on 

 which to taunt a people ! Yet this was but one of many instances of his 

 national prejudice and illiberality. 



This grain succeeds better than Barley, in a thin soil ; and is there- 



A.H. 



267 



fore frequently employed, in the rotation of crops, when Barley would 

 have been preferred, had the land been good. The A. NUDA, L., called 

 " skinless oats," a species nearly allied to this, but with 3 - 5-flowered 

 spikelets, and the caryopsis loosely covered by the paleae, has been par- 

 tially cultivated, by the curious, on account of its superior fitness for 

 making Oat-meal, as an article of diet for the sick. 



23. ARRHENATHE'RUM, Beauv. OAT-GRASS. 



[Greek, Ahrrhen, male, and Ather, awn ; the staminate floret being awnod.] 

 Spikelets 2-flowered with the rudiment of a third, terminal one ; middle 



FIG. 267. A 3-flowered spikelet of the Oat (Avena saliva), the two lower flowers fertile, 

 the lowermost awnod, the uppermost abortive. 268. The pistil removed to exhibit the 

 scales at the base of the hairy ovary. 



