GEASS fa:mily. 



395 



tensivelv cnltivated, in this couBtrr,— cliieflv as food for horses. Dr. 

 JoHxsox took occasion, in compiling his Dictionary, to fling a sarcasm 

 at the Scotch, by defining oats to be the food of horses in England, and 

 of men in Scotland — as if the effects of climate were a fit snbiect on 

 wiiich to taunt a people I Yet this was but one of many instances of his 

 national prejudice and illiberality. 



This grain succeeds better than Barley, in a thin soil ; and is there- 



fore frequently employed, in the rotation of crops, when Barley would 

 hare been preferred, had the land been good. The A. xrnA. L.. called 

 skinless oats."' — a species nearly allied to this, but with 3-5-flowered 

 spikelets. and the caryopsis loosely covered by the pales. — has been par- 

 tially cultivated, by the curious, on account of its superior fitness for 

 making Oat-meal, as an article of diet for the sick. 



23. ARRHEXATHE'EOL Beauv. Oat-geass. 



[Greek, Ahrrhen. male, and Ather. awn ; the staminate floret being awned.] 



Spikelets 2-flowered with the rudiment of a third, terminal one ; middle 



Fig. 267. A 3-flowered spikelet of ttie Oat (Avena sativa), the two lower flowers fertile, 

 the lowermost awned, the uppermost abortive. 268. The pistil removed to exhibit the 

 scales at the base of the hairy ovary. 



