155 



ject to the attacks of some fungus, like ergot in rye, and smut in 

 Indian corn, which renders it unfit for food. It may be well to give 

 the indictment against darnel, as already published in the transac- 

 tions of your Society for eighteen hundred and sixty-four and sixty- 

 five, in Professor H. N. Bolancler's papers on grasses. It is as follows : 



Haller affirms that this species of lolium not only produces intoxication, as its trivial name 

 implies, but that if baked into bread, or fermented in ale, its administration is attended with 

 very disagreeable and even fatal effeets. It produces headache, vertigo, vomiting, lethargy, 

 drunkenness, and difficulty of speech, and the tongue exhibits a very strong trembling. Seager 

 further remarks, that a trembling of the body is one of the most certain signs of poisoning by 

 this plant. It also affects with blindness for several hours. By the Chinese laws — for this plant 

 is found both in China and Japan — it is forbidden to be used in fermented liquors. Some of 

 the intoxicating qualities of factitious beer are said to be owing to the admixture of darnel with 

 the malted barley. According to Withering, horses, geese, etc., are killed by darnel, and dogs are 

 particularly subject to its influences, mixed in small quantities in their food. It is, however, 

 said to fatten chickens and hogs. In the Medical and Physical Journal there are placed on 

 record several cases of poisoning, by darnel, in the human subject. In these, "giddiness in the 

 head, pain, and swelling of the limbs, succeeded by abcess and gangrene, were the most promi- 

 nent symptoms. One of the sufferers lost both his legs." (Burnett's Outline of Botany, p. 365, 

 published LSfi5.) Geiger gives in his Pharmac. Botany, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, an 

 analysis of the grains made by Bley. According to this analysis its "effects are only slightly 

 narcotic." I have known of but one instance that a farmer had observed some deleterious 

 effects on cattle having been fed on this very grass. 



If, after reading this, anyone feels a hankering for a loaf of darnel 

 bread he can easily find the material for it. He should, however, 

 make careful preparations for recording his sensations after eating 

 it, and leave the notes in good shape for the benefit of his survivors. 

 I should hardly recommend the introduction of poison darnel where 

 it does not already grow. If, however, it gets the upper hand in a 

 grain field after a wet winter, like the last, it is best to cut it in the 

 milk, before it becomes too tough and wiry. By thus preventing it 

 from ripening the land can be nearly cleared of it for some time. 



The seeds of several kinds of rye grass can be had of most any reg- 

 ular seed dealer. The English farmers have names for a great many 

 varieties of the perennial rye grass. All of the species of this genus 

 (Lolium) seem to vary and sport in minor points. Sometimes this 

 can be ascribed to change of location, but there are some things that 

 seem to be independent of that. For instance, the head may be 

 bearded or bald, the two forms growing on the same hand's breath of 

 ground, and apparently from the same lot of seed. I have observed 

 this in both Italian rye grass and darnel (L. Italicum and L. Temu- 

 lentum.) 



MEADOW SOFT GRASS — "MESQUTTE." (?) 



French — Houque laineuse — Foin de mouton. German — Wolliges 

 Honig-gras. 



This beautiful grass (Holcus lanatus) has been widely spread among 

 the farmers of this coast, more particularly in our northern coast 

 counties, and through Oregon and Washington Territory. I became 

 familiar with it while living on the peaty lands of the San Joaquin 

 delta. Mr. A. G. Kimbell gives me the following history of its intro- 

 duction there: 



In eighteen hundred and sixty-two I was in the seed store of Mr. Moore (pioneer seedsman 

 of San Francisco), and he showed me some seed that he called 'mesquite grass' seed, and gave 

 me a few seeds of the same to try on the tule lands. I sowed the seed on Middle River, and 

 the grass grew and flourished well. As I had no reclaimed land then to cultivate, it was of no 

 value to me, and I paid but little attention to it. Some twelve or fifteen years ago I met in San 

 Francisco the Honorable J. M. Hudspeth, of Sonoma County, and spoke to him about my trial 



