10 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
being but an elevated grass), divides tliis order into two 
groups. 
Firstly, Cereal Grasses (corn) . Those yielding a seed large 
enough to be collected and stored as food for man and the 
inferior animals ; and, Secondly, Meadow and Pasture Grasses, 
in which the whole plant is employed as pasturage, or fodder 
for cattle. 
The seed-grain of the cereal grasses, then,forms the com crop ; 
and our own experiments, particularly with regard to the oat, show 
that our cultivated varieties, 
with their plump seeds, are 
derived from a wild oat, the 
seeds of which are entirely 
valueless — in fact, the whole 
plant is a weed, the mis- 
chievous nature of which is 
fully recognized by society 
when it speaks of a reformed 
profligate as having sown 
his wild oats.* 
The seeds of the wild oat 
are covered with stiff bristles 
(fig. 1 ) of a brown colour, and 
this, 'with the long bent awn, 
is in appearance so much 
like an insect, and the con- 
tortions caused by the un- 
twisting of the awn as it 
touches the water so nearly 
imitates the behaviour of 
a struggling fly, that the 
country urchin employs it 
with success as a bait for 
trout, whilst the Waltonian, 
■with his ingeniously con- 
structed “artificial fly,” may 
get little more than his ex- 
ercise for his pains. 
The wild oat is botanically known as Avenct fatua ; it grows 
from three to five feet in height as a weed in corn and pulse, 
SPIKELET OF THE WILD OAT. 
(a a, the Hairy Seeds, simulating a Fishing- Ply. 
* We recollect once, whilst on a visit to a farmer in Worcestershire, having 
seen the weed-oat growing for the first time, and, though then on our way to 
church, we could not resist the temptation of plucking a specimen, which 
- was at once consigned to our sabbatical botanical vasculiun, namely, our hat ; 
the contents of which were noticed by our friend, and elicited from him the 
serious (?) remark : “ Ah, sir, what is the good of your going to church if you 
don’t leave your wild oats behind you 1 ” 
