6 



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 aU 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 Poolers 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. 



