See AVENA, BOTANY Index.

Mr Bruce gives the following account of the oats which he found growing wild in Aroossi, a small territory in Abyssinia, not far from the source of the Nile:

"Wild oats (says he) grow up here spontaneously to a prodigious height and size, capable often of concealing both the horse and his rider, and some of the stalks being little less than an inch in circumference. They have, when ripe, the appearance of small canes. The inhabitants make no sort of use of this grain in any period of its growth: the uppermost thin husk of it is beautifully variegated with a changeable purple colour; the taste is perfectly good. I often made the meal into cakes in remembrance of Scotland." Our author informs us, that the Abyssinians could never be brought to relish these cakes, which they said were bitter, burnt their stomachs, and made them thirsty. He is, however, decidedly of opinion, that the wild oat of Aroossi is the oat in its original state; and that it has degenerated everywhere in Europe.