b POPULAR ECONOMIC BOTANY. 



imagine the oats mentioned were literally gilded, but must 

 presume the expression applied to the golden colour of the 

 grain. 



Many varieties of the oat are cultivated, but the princi- 

 pal ones are the White, and the Black or Tartarian oat ; both 

 are annual plants. One called the Potato Oat is a great 

 favourite in Scotland. In the admirable synopsis published 

 by Peter Lawson and Son, the eminent Edinburgh seedsmen, 

 sixty varieties are mentioned. The quantity of oats im- 

 ported is very inferior to that of wheat : in 1850 we received 

 1,165,876 quarters, nearly all of which came from the 

 northern ports of Europe ; but the quantity cultivated in 

 Great Britain far exceeds that of all other cereal grains 

 added together; the total quantity given for England, Ire- 

 land, and Scotland, in Poole's Statistics, being 30,500,000 

 quarters, or 244,000,000 bushels. 



In the northern parts of the kingdom the oat forms the 

 staple article of human food ; but its greatest use is in feed- 

 ing horses. When the bran, or outer integument of the 

 grains, is removed, they are called "Groats," or when 

 skinned and partially crushed, " Embden Groats/' which are 

 much used in making the light and easily digested invalid 

 diet called gruel. 



