696 O A T O A T central Asia the great desert of Gobi, ranging from Turkestan to Manchuria, is interspersed with a few oases, the chief one being Kami, which is characterized by a rich growth of vegetation. OAT, Avena sativa, L., one of about forty species mostly dispersed through the temperate regions of the Old World. It belongs to the tribe Aveneee, of the order Graminex or Grasses. The spikelets form a loose panicle, familiar in the cultivated oat, the flowering glume having its dorsal rib prolonged into an awn, which is in some species twisted and bent near the base. The origin of the cultivated oat is generally believed to be A. fatua, L., or "wild oat." Prof. J. Buckman suc ceeded in raising "the potato-oat type" and "the white Tartarian oat " from grain of this species. 1 Mr A. Stephen Wilson, however, thinks that as yet there is no real proof of this relationship, be cause his own cultivation of the wild oat made no difference upon it ; 2 but there appears to be a great tendency in the oat to de generate on stiff clay soils into " weed oats," a fact which may perhaps ac count for this divergence of opinion. Lindley had previously suggested that the cultivated oat was a domesticated variety of some wild species, and that it might not improb ably be referred to A. strigosa, Schreb., " the bristle-pointed oat," which is the origin of the Scotch oat, according to Buck man. The white and black varieties of this species, Mr Wilson ob serves, were cultivated in England and Scotland from remote times, and "are frequently mentioned in Rogers History of Agriculture and Prices . . . and they are still grown as a crop in Orkney and Shetland." 3 Both these species are found in Europe, North Africa, Siberia, and north-west India. 4 The "naked oat," A. nuda, L., is probably only a race of A. sativa ; 5 it was found by Bunge in waste groiind about Pekin. "According to Lindley," FIG. 1. Panicle of A. fatua, var. sativa. (After Le Maout.) Fig- 2. Fig. 3. FIG. 2. Spikelet of A. fatua, var. sativa; with two fertile florets, and one ter minal, rudimentary. (After Nees.) FIG. 3. Spikelet of Wild Oat, A. fatua ; glumes hairy and long-pointed- awn twisted at base. (After Buckman.) writes Mr Wilson, 6 " the naked oat is the pilcorn of the old agriculture, and we see from Rogers 7 that it was in 1 Science and Practice of Farm Cultivation, p. 172 (1865). 2 A Bushel of Corn, p. 145. 3 Op. cit., p. 145. 1 Hooker s Students Flora, p. 466 (1870). 5 De Candolle, Geographic Botanique, ii. p. 941. 6 Op. cit., p. 146. 7 Rarer Kinds of Grain, vol. ii. p. 173. cultivation in England in the 13th century." Both this and the " common otes," A. vesca, are described by Gerard. 8 Parkinson tells us that in his time [early in the 17th century] the naked oat was sown in sundry places, but "nothing so frequent" as the common sort. The chief differences between A. fatua and A.f., var. sativa, accord ing to Buckman, 9 are, that in the former the chaff-scales which adhere to the grain are thick and hairy, and in the latter they are not so coarse and are hairless. The wild oat, moreover, has a long stiff aAvn, usually twisted near the base. In the cultivated oat it may be wanting, and if present it is hot so stiff and is seldom bent. The grain is very small and worthless in the one, but larger and full in the other. Mr Wilson adds that in the point of attach ment " in the wild oat the hanger terminates in a little oval spatula, . . . forming a kind of ball-and-socket connexion. ... In the cultivated oat the continuity of the vascular tissue in the hanger is not broken off by any point of the kind." 10 There are now many varieties of the cultivated oat. 11 With regard to the antiquity of the oat, De Candolle observes that it was not cultivated by the Hebrews, the Egyptians, the ancient Greeks, and the Romans. 12 Central Europe appears to be the locality where it was cultivated earliest, at least in Europe, for grains have been found among the remains of the Swiss lake-dwellings perhaps not earlier than the bronze age, 13 while Pliny alludes to bread made of it by the ancient Germans. 14 Pickering also re cords Galen s observations (De Alim. Fac., i. 14), that it was abundant in Asia Minor, especially Mysia, where it was made into bread as well as given to horses ; he also states that ten varieties were introduced by Mohammed Ali into Egypt for fodder, and that it was seen by Bruce wild in Abyssinia, sometimes tall enough to conceal horse and rider (Grev.). And he adds that eastward from Syria it is called " sulu " by the Tatars, and was observed by Kaempfer and others in Japan ; that it was brought over by colonists, and is now cultivated in north-east America ; and that it has now become naturalized in parts of South America. 15 Besides the use of the straw when cut up and mixed with other food for fodder, the oat grain constitutes an important food for both man and beast. Being cultivated best in comparatively low temperatures, it has long formed the staple food for Scotland, north England, and Derbyshire, as well as for Germany, wherever wheat does not nourish. It is extensively grown in all the northern States of the American Union, and in New England its production largely exceeds that of wheat. The oat grain (excepting the naked oat), like that of barley, is closely invested by the husk. " This latter is used both in Scotland and Wales for the preparation of a kind of porridge . . . called sowans and sucan." 16 Oatmeal is made from the kiln-dried grain from which the husks have been removed ; and the form of the food is the well-known " porridge." In Ireland it is mixed with Indian-corn meal and is called "stirabout." Groats or grits are the whole kernel from which the husk is removed. Their use is for gruel, which used to be consumed as an ordinary drink in the 17th century at the coffee-houses in London. The meal can be baked into " cake " or biscuit, as the Passover-cake of the Jews ; but it cannot be made into loaves in consequence of the great difficulty in rupturing the starch grains, unless the tempera ture be raised to a considerable height. With regard to the nutri tive value of oatmeal, as compared with that of wheat flour, it contains a higher percentage of albuminoids than any other grain, viz., 12-6 that of wheat being 10 "8 and less of starch, 58 4, as against 66 3 in wheat. It has rather more sugar, viz., 5 4 wheat having 4 2 and a good deal more fat, viz., 5 6, as against 2 in flour. Lastly, salts amount to 3 per cent, in oat, but are only 1-7 in wheat. Its nutritive value, therefore, is higher than that of ordinary seconds flour. 17 (Q. H.) 8 Herball, p. 68 (1597). Op. cit., p. 169. 10 Op. cit., p. 143. 11 See Wilson, op. cit., p. 141 ; AGRICULTURE, vol. i. pp. 359, 360 ; and Morton s Cyclopasdia of Agriculture, s.v. 12 Op. cit., ii. p. 938, with reff. 13 Pickering, Chron. Hist, of PL, p. 451. 14 H.N., xviii. 17. 15 Op. cit., p. 341. 16 E. Smith, Foods, p. 167. 17 Letheby, Lectures on Food, pp. 6, 7 (1S70).
