364 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1892. 



pairs, or sometimes clustered in fours, ovate, scarcely | line long. 

 B oth jflowers fertile, the pedicellate smaller. The two outer glumes 

 slightly unequal, thin, membranous, broad, convex. Flowering 

 glumes thinner, ovate, smooth, the third longer. Fruiting glumes 

 not hardened. 



This grass is probably rare. Specimens received from Kumber- 

 wada, in North Kanara, only. Seen from a distance, at first sight 

 it resembles a depauperated species of Setaria intermedia, R. and S. 

 Uses not known. 



AvENA, Idnn. 



A. sativa, Linn., Gen. Kunth. SuppL, PI. XX., fig. 1 ; Dalz. and 

 Gibs., Bomb. Flora., SuppL, 97. 



Ver. Wilaiti Jaw. (Datr). The cultivators on this side treat 

 it as barley and confound it with this grain. It is grown for 

 its grain and fodder (straw) near some cantonments by cavalry 

 officers and for race horses. It is largely grown for this purpose 

 at the Saharanpur and Hapur Stud Depots, and at the Hissar 

 Cattle Farm, and is also stacked. 



Dalz. and Gibs, state that the oat is often used for the feeding of 

 horses, but as the paleaceous matter is much more predominant than 

 is the case in the oat of Europcj it often gives rise to chronic cough 

 and huskiness. Hence many prefer the Oicer arietinum, or gram, to 

 the oat as a horse's food. (See Bomb. Fl., SuppL, 97.) 



It is extensively cultivated in some parts of Europe ; its entire 

 grain forms an important article of horse-food, and, when ground, 

 which removes the husk, it becomes oatmeal. This is used in the 

 preparation of porridge and cakes ; and forms a nutritious food, 

 greatly used by the people of Scotland. What is called Emden 

 Groats of the shops in the entire grain deprived of its husk and 

 dried. 



It is stated that richer natives near the chief towns and military 

 stations, are beginning to appreciate the value of the oatmeal as 

 numan food. The analysis of the Indian oat does not compare 

 favourably with the oat grown in Europe. Whilst the later yields 

 albuminoids 12, oil 6, fibre 11, and ash 3 per cent., the former gives 

 albuminoids lO'l, oil 2*3, fibre 16, ash 2*3, It is to be remarked 



