AVENA, in botany, oat-grass, class Triandria Digynia ; natural order, Grami na. Generic character ; calyx, .glume generally many-flowered, two-valved, loosely collecting the flowers ; valves lanceolate, acute, ventricose, loose, large, Awnless ; corolla two-valved ; lower valve harder than the calyx ; the size of the calyx roundish, ventricose, acuminate at both ends, emitting from the back an awn spirally twisted, reflex , nectary two-leav ed; leaflets lanceolate, gibbous at the base ; stamina filaments three, capillary ; anthers oblong forked ; pistil germ ob tuse; styles two, reflex, hairy ; stigma simple ; pericarp none ; corolla most firm ly closed, grows to the seed, and does not gape ; seed one, slender, oblong, acumi nate at both ends, marked with a longitu dinal furrow. There are many species, of which we notice A. sativa, cultivated oat. Of this there are four varieties, the white, black, brown, or red, and the blue oat; panicled ; calyxes two-seeded ; seeds very smooth, one-awned ; annual; culm or straw upwards of two feet high ; pani cle various in different varieties, but al ways loose and pendulous ; the two glumes or chaffs of the calyx are marked with lines, pointed at the end, longer than the flower and unequal ; there are usually two flowers, and seeds in each calyx ; they are alternate, conical ; the smaller one is awnless ; the larger puts forth a strong, two coloured, bent awn, from the middle of the back. No botanist has been able to ascertain satisfactorily the native place of growth of this, or indeed of any other sort of grain now commonly cultivated in Europe. The varieties men tioned above have been long known, and others have been introduced, as the Po land, the Friesland or Dutch, and the Si berian or Tartarian oat. The blue oat is probably what is called Scotch greys. The white sort is most common about London, and those countries where the inhabitants live much upon oat-cakes, as it makes the whitest meal. The black is more culti vated in the northern parts of England, as it is esteemed a hearty food for horses. The red oat is much cultivated in Derby shire, Staffordshire, and Cheshire ; it is a very hardy sort, and gives a good increase. The straw is of a brownish red colour, very heavy, and esteemed better food for horses than either of the former sorts. In
Lincolnshire they clutivate the sort called the Scotch greys. The Poland oat has a short plump grain, but the thickness of the skin seems to have brought it into dis repute among farmers. Add to this, the straw is very short. It was sown by Mr. Lisle in 1709. Friesland or Dutch oat affords more straw, and is thinner skin ned, and the grains mostly double. A white oat, called the potatoe oat in Cum berland, where it was lately discovered, promises, from the size of the grain and the length of the straw, to be the most valuable we possess ; it is now very gene rally bought for sowing. The oat is a very profitable grain, and a great improvement to many estates in the north of England, Scotland, and Wales ; for it will thrive in cold barren soils, which will produce no other sort of grain ; it will also thrive on the hottest land; in short, there is no soil too rich or too poor, too hot or too cold, for it ; and in wet harvests, when other grain is spoiled, this will receive little or no damage. The meal of this grain makes a tolerably good bread, and is the com mon food of the country people in the north. It is also esteemed for pottage and other messes, and in some places they make beer with it. The best time for sowing oats is in February or March, ac cording as the season is early or late. The black and red oats may be sown a month earlier than the white, because they are hardier. The advantage of early sowing is proved by experiment. White oats sown the last week in May, have pro, duced seven quarters the acre , and in Hertfordshire they do not sow them till after they have done sowing barley, which is found to be a good practice, this oat being 'sore tender than the others. Mr. Marshall mentions the blowing of the sal low as a direction for the sowing of this grain. He says, " most people allow four bushels of oats to an acre, but I am con vinced that three bushels are more than enough; the usual produce is about 23 bushels to an acre, though I have some times known more than 30." But 40 bushels and more are certainly no unusual crop. The American species are 9 in number, according to Muldenberg.