Trees, Shrubs, and Plants of Virgil 



Columella says it should be cut green for fodder or 

 hay. In comparing it to a wild plant the Greek 

 authority does not mean that it was not cultivated, 

 but refers to what he calls the many husks of the 

 seed. The wild oat occurs all over Europe, and has 

 increased in our cornfields since the beginning of 

 the war. It is probable enough that the name of 

 ' avena ' was used of other grasses. 



Although the straw of the oat can be made into 

 a musical instrument, it is probable that our poets 

 in dealing with it have not always had their eyes on 

 the object. It was enough for them that Virgil used 

 ' avena ' of the pastoral instrument. Hence Spenser 

 speaks of the shepherd who broke ' his oaten pipe,' 

 Shakespeare of shepherds piping on ' oaten strawes,' 

 and Milton of ' the oaten flute.' Of these three poets 

 Milton was the most musical, and in this case the 

 most inaccurate. A single straw could not be made 

 into a flute, and even as a pipe could hardly make 

 the woods resound in praise of Amaryllis. The fact 

 is that ' avena ' as a musical instrument is the pan- 

 pipe, the accompanist in this country of the now, 

 alas ! obsolescent Punch and Judy show. This 

 consisted of seven pipes, sometimes perhaps oaten 

 straws, but more often reeds or kexes — ' septem 

 compacta cicutis fistula ' (Ec. ii. 36). The single 

 pipe was despised by a shepherd of musical powers, 

 and left to those whose use it was ' stridenti 

 miserum stipula disperdere caronen ' (Ec. iii. 27), or 

 to ' grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.' 



Within the memory of men living half a century 



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