CULTIVATED GRAINS AND GRASSES 249 
All things considered, it seems to be one of those plants that 
developed in a small area affording peculiarly favorable condi- 
tions, and, it is altogether probable, was never widely dissem- 
inated in the wild. It could not have been known at all in the 
ancient eastern world, or it would certainly have been cultivated, 
even though the people of those times depended far less upon 
grain and more upon pasture for maintaining their animals than 
we do, and though corn could never make its way for human 
food where wheat could be grown. 
Oats. Two species of this grain are involved in the discussion, 
the common oat (Avena sativa) and the side oat (Avena orien- 
talzs), in which the grains are all upon one side of the head. This 
grain can by no means boast the antiquity of wheat and barley. 
It was grown by the ancient Greeks under the name of bromus, 
and by the Latins as avena. It has been found in the later lake 
dwellings of Switzerland (not very old), but it does not seem to 
have been grown by either the ancient Egyptians or the Hebrews. 
No other cultivated grain can so well maintain itself in the 
uncultivated state, and for this reason oats have been found 
growing wild in many separated regions of the world, but there 
is little or no evidence that it is aboriginal in these places. 
Besides these cultivated races, however, there are a number 
of closely related wild species which interest us, because it is 
possible that from such as these oats were originally had. In 
America we have both Avena striata and Avena smithiz, both 
distinctly oatlike wild perennials. The Gartner brothers of 
England, who are among the greatest improvers of the oat, have 
imported a ‘wild oat’ from eastern Asia, which is sufficiently 
close to the common oat to cross with it and to afford foundation 
for selection and ultimate improvement. 
Rye (Secale cereale). Here at last we have a comparatively 
new grain among us. Candolle says that it is not found in 
Egyptian remains nor in those of the lake dwellers, that no 
name for it exists in either the Semitic, Sanskrit, or Chinese 
languages, and that the ancient Greeks did not know it. 
