A V 
this or any other fort of grain now commonly cultivated 
in Europe. There are three forts of oats cultivated in 
England, viz. the white, the black, and the brown or red 
oat; to which we may add the blue, the Poland, the 
Friezland or Dutch, and the Siberian or Tartarian, oat. 
The white fort is the mod common about London, makes 
the whited meal, and is chiefly cultivated where the in¬ 
habitants live much upon oat-cakes. The black is more 
cultivated in the northern parts of England, and is efleetn- 
ed a hearty food for horfes. The red oat is much culti¬ 
vated in Derbyfhire, Staffordlhire, and Chethire, but is 
rarely feen in any of the counties near London; though, 
ns it is a very hardy fort, and gives a good increafe, it 
would be well worth propagating, efpecially in flrong land: 
the draw- is of a brow nidi red colour, as is alfo the grain, 
which is very full and heavy, and efteemed better food 
for horfes than either of the former forts. The blue oat 
is faid, in Merrett’s Pinax, and Ray’s Synopfis, to have 
been fown about Kighlev, in Yorkdiire. It is probably 
the fame with what is cultivated in Lincoln (hire, &c. un¬ 
der the name of Scotch Greys. The Poland oat has a 
fhort plump grain, but the thicknefs of the (kin feems to 
have brought it into difrepute among farmers. The grains 
are modly (ingle, it has no awn, and the draw is fhort. 
This was fown by Mr. Lille, in 1709. Friezland or Dutch 
oat affords more draw, and is thinner fkinned. The grains 
are modly double, the larger one fometimes awned, with 
the awn placed high. Siberian or Tartarian oat, is, ac¬ 
cording to Mr. Mardiall, a didinff fpecies; unnoticed by 
Linnreus. Each flower frequently contains three perfect 
florets, never lefs than two, with a pedicelled rudiment of 
a third. The panicle differs effentially from all the va¬ 
rieties of avena fativa, tire grains are thin and fmall, the 
larged awned, the fmall ones awnlefs ; the draw being 
tall and reedy. Avena arundinacea would be a proper 
name for it. 
The oat is a very profitable grain, and edeemed the 
mod wholefome food for horfes, being fweet, and of an 
opening nature: other forts of grain are apt to bind, 
which is injurious to labouring horfes ; but, if they be fed 
with this grain foon after it is houfed, before it has had a 
fvveat in the mow, or has been otherwife dried, it is as 
bad on the other hand, for it is then too laxative. This 
grain is a great improvement to many edates in the north 
of England, Scotland, and Wales; for it will thrive on 
cold barren foils, which will produce no other fort of 
grain; it will, alfo thrive on the hotted land : in diort, 
there is no foil too rich or too poor, too hot or too cold, 
for it ; and in wet harveds, when other grain is fpoiled, 
this will receive little or no damage ; the draw and hulks 
being of fo dry a nature, that, if they are houfed wet* they 
will not heat in the mow', or become mouldy, as other 
grain ufually do ; it is therefore of great advantage in the 
northern parts of England, and in Scotland, where their 
harveft is generally late, and the autumns wet. The meal 
of this grain makes tolerably good bread, and is the com¬ 
mon food of the country people in the north. In the 
foutli it is edeemed for pottage, and other mefles, and in 
fome places they make beer with it. 
7. Avena nuda, or naked oat, pilcorn, or piliis : pani- 
cled, calyxes three-flowered, receptacle exceeding the ca¬ 
lyx, petals awned at the back, the third fiofcule awnlefs. 
Naked oat, as Linnaeus obferves, is very nearly allied to 
the foregoing, differing in little elfe, except that the grains 
quit the hulks, and fall naked when they are ripe. Haller 
remarks, that, although the calyxes are laid to be three- 
flowered, yet there are fometimes only two flowers in a 
calyx : he adds, that the awn is neither twided nor jointed. 
Ray fays, that it has not a hard hulk, like the common 
oat, but feveral thin chaffy coats ; that the grain alio is 
Imaller, but fuller bodied, inclining to tawney, like the 
red oat. Gerard relates (1597) that in Norfolk and Suf¬ 
folk thefe are called unhulled or naked oats ; it does not 
appear that they are now cultivated in thofe counties. 
Worlidge (16S7) affirms, that the naked oat has been 
Vo 1 ,. II. No. 88, 
yearly fown about Durham above thefe thirty years. Dr. 
Plot (1686) reports, that it was fown at Burton-updn- 
Trent ; and Mr. Ray informs us, that in his time it was 
cultivated abundantly in the farther part of Cornwall, 
where it fetched no lefs a price than wheat. It is dill 
fown there in the poored croft-land that has been tilled 
two or three leafons before with potatoes, and for the 
ufes of the poor anlwers all the purpofes of oatmeal. It 
is a fmall yellow grain, and for fattening calves accounted 
fuperior to any other nourifhment. Mr. Miller fays, that 
the naked oat is lefs common than the others, efpecially 
in the foutbern parts of England ; but in the north of 
England, Scotland, and Wales, it is cultivated in plenty. 
This fort is edeemed, becaufe the grain threlhes clean out 
of the hulk, and need not be carried to the mill to be made 
into oatmeal or grid. An'acre of ground doth not yield 
fo many bulhels of thefe as of the common oats, by rea- 
fon the grain is fmall and naked, and goes near in mea- 
fure ; but what is wanted in the meafure is fupplied in 
value. [It mud be obferved, that the above paragraph 
is copied from Worlidge, and that the naked oat is not 
fown now to the extent which he fays it was in his time.] 
Naked oat is called piliis, or pilez, according to the ortho¬ 
graphy in Boriafe, or pill-corn , from its quality of depo- 
fiting the hulk or chaff. Pill, which we now write peel, 
being formerly put for the outer coat of any fort of fruit. 
8. Avena fatua, or bearded wild oat, or haver : panicled, 
calyxes three-flowered, all the fiofcules awned and hairy 
at the bale. Our bearded wild oat or haver has an annual 
root. It is a taller plant than the cultivated oat, the culm 
or draw being commonly three, and frequently four, feet 
feet in height; it is eredl, firm, leafy, fmooth, with four 
joints.or knots. Sheaths dreaked, fmooth. Leaves fmooth 
to appearance, but rough to the touch along the edge if 
ftroked downwards. Valves of the calyx from nine to 
eleven lines long, with from nine to eleven ribs, whitifit 
green, longer than the flowers, the outer valve generally 
a line (liorter than the inner, containing two florets, both 
awned; the third is often wanting. The feed has a hairy 
covering. This is one of our mod dedrubtive annual 
weeds among corn, and is too frequently fo prevalent a- 
mong barley as alrnod to choke it. The feed ripens and 
falls before harved, thus filling the ground, in which it 
will lie feveral years without vegetating. It cannot eafily 
be extirpated without repeated fallowing, or by laying 
down the land to grafs. The awns are fometimes tiled 
for hygrometers, and the feeds indead of artificial flies in 
fifiling for trout. 
9. Avena fefquitertia: panicled, calyxes fubtriflorous, 
all the fiofcules awned, receptacles bearded ; panicle ob¬ 
long. The flowers appear to be hairy, but all the hairs 
fit on pedicels or receptacles within the calyx, among the 
flowers. The third flower is imperfect, and does not get 
beyond a rudiment; it has however a fmall awn. Native 
of Germany, Switzerland, Auflria, and Piedmont. 
10. Avena pubefeens, or loft oat-grafs: fubfpiked, ca¬ 
lyxes fubtriflorous, upper florets hairy at the bafe, leaves 
flat, pubefeent. This is a perennial grafs ; hardy, early, 
and produftive. Native of Portugal, France, Germany, 
England, Siberia; with us it grows in dry and chalky foils. 
11. Avena lierilis, or great wild oat, or bearded oat- 
grafs : panicled, calyxes five-flowered, the outer fiofcules 
and awns hairy at the bafe, the inner ones awnlefs. Root 
annual ; culms three or four feet high, round, upright, 
fmooth ; leaves fmooth, flat, fharp, the longed a foot and a 
half in length ; feeds whitifh, lilky, efpecially towards the 
tip. Native of Barbary ; alfo of Spain, according to Lin¬ 
naeus, and flowers in June there; with us in July. 
12. Avena flavefeens, or yellow oat-grafs : panicle loofe, 
calyxes three-flowered, diort; all the florets awned. Yel¬ 
low oat-grafs has a perennial creeping root. Culm eigh¬ 
teen inches, or from one to two feet high, (lender, upright, 
round, with three or four purplilh joints, about which 
are numerous fhort hairs ; leaves flat, two lines in breadth, 
the upper fur face hairy, the under fmooth ; iheath ftreak- 
7 B edj 
