BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 575 
thought necessary, by subscription or otherwise, to forward 
the movement. 
One word more—I venture to assert that if such a society 
had been in existence, the Bill for relieving veterinary sur¬ 
geons from serving on juries, instead of being lost by the 
casting vote of the Speaker of the House of Commons, 
would now have been British laiv. 
BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
By W. Watson, M.R.C.V.S., Rugby. 
(Continued from p. 261.) 
In my last paper in connexion with the botanical characters 
of plants which are used as food for our domestic animals, I 
concluded a brief notice of those plants whose roots, stem, 
and leaves yield a large supply of food. I shall now proceed 
to notice the third and equally important division, viz., those 
plants whose seeds afford an abundant and valuable supply of 
food, not oniy for animals but man himself. I shall proceed, 
therefore, first to describe those plants extensively cultivated 
everywhere in this country, viz.: 
Avena sativa (common oat), Hordeum distichum (common 
barley), and Triticum vulgare (wheat). Found as they are, 
growing in luxuriant abundance nearly everywhere around 
us, and serving as the great source from which both man and 
animals are supplied with food, all persons must be suffi¬ 
ciently familiar with their general characters as to need but a 
very brief description of them. All these plants, like the 
grasses which they so much resemble, belong to the class of 
Endogens, and to the natural order Graminece , both which class 
and order have already been described. There are a great 
number of varieties of each, all more or less valued according 
to the nature of the soil and district in which they are 
grown, but a brief description of those most generally culti¬ 
vated will be sufficient to give a general insight into the 
botanical character of the whole. 
Avena sativa (common oat), Banicle spreading, equal,— 
Glumes generally two-flowered, and longer than the florets ; 
the upper nine-ribbed —Palere two, the lower bifid, with a 
twisted awn at the back —Florets smooth, bifid, and toothed 
at the point. 
The common oat has been cultivated in different parts of 
