[307] In B. xiii. c. 47.
[308] He borrows this notion of the oat being wheat in a diseased state, from Theophrastus. Singularly enough, it was adopted by the learned Buffon.
[309] From Theophrastus, Hist. Plant. B. viii. c. 10.
[310] This but rarely happens in our climates, as Fée remarks.
[311] The grains are sometimes, though rarely, found devoured on the stalk, by a kind of larvæ.
[312] Some coleopterous insect, probably, now unknown, and not the Cantharis vesicatoria, or “Spanish fly,” as some have imagined. Dioscorides and Athenæus state to the same effect as Pliny.
[313] The proper influence of the humidity of the earth would naturally be impeded by a coating of these substances.
[314] This plant has not been identified; but none of the gramineous plants are noxious to cattle, with the exception of the seed of darnel.
[315] Lolium temulentum of Linnæus.
[316] See B. xxi. c. 58.