164 lOLIUM. [CLASS III. ORDER ll. 



cold, white, stiff, benumbed, and at length quite insensible, after which 

 succeed excruciating pains, together with fever, hcadach, and some- 

 times bleeding from tlic nose ; finally, the affected parts, and in the 

 first instance the fingers and arras, afterwards the toes and legs, shrivel, 

 dry up, and drop off hj the joints, when the parts heal up — or before 

 this, life is exhausted. Such is the account of this dreadful disease, 

 given by Lang, a physician of Lucerne. 



The manner in wliich ergot is produced, is variously stated by 

 authors. According to Willdenow, it may be produced at any time in 

 Rye sown in a rich soil, by watertng tlic plants excessively in warm 

 weather. Fontana has alleged that ergot may be propagated from 

 plant to plant, and that he has expressly transmitted it by contact from 

 ear to ear. Hertwig, however, by very careful experiments, came to 

 a different conclusion. Others again assert, that it is produced by an 

 insect, a species of butterfly; and General Martin Field, having observed 

 flies to puncture the glumes of Rye during its milky state, imitated 

 the process by puncturing them with a needle, and found that in both 

 cases the juice exuded, and in four days a little black point was visible, 

 which he affirms gradually became a spur. But Dc CandoUe and 

 others maintain that it is a distinct parasitic plant. The only way, as 

 Mr. Berkeley observes, of deciding the point, would be to institute 

 inquiries as to the raannw in which it commences its growth, as Brong- 

 niart has done respecting Uredo scgelum, as stated in Ann. des Sciences, 

 vol. XX. p. 171. 



2. L. temulen'lum, Linn. (Fig. 208.) bearded Darnel. Spikelets 

 equal in length with the gluma ; florets awned ; root annual. 



English Botany, t. 1124. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 174. — Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 295. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. r)7.^Sinclair, Hort. 

 Gram. Woburn. p. 397. 



(3. (Fig. 205.) Florets without or with a short awn, Lo'lium arven'se. 

 English Botany, t. 1125. — English Flora, vol. i. p. 175. — Lindley, 

 Synopsis, p. 295. — Hooker, British Flora, vol. i. p. 57. 



Root fibrous, downy. Stem from one to three feet high, round, 

 striated, leafy, smooth and shining below, rouahish above. Leaves 

 linear, with a tapering point, roughish, especially on the upper side. 

 Sheaths striated, roughish. Li(jula short, obtuse, mostly torn. Inflo- 

 rescence an erect spike, from six fo twelve inches long; the rachis 

 notched, angular, slightly waved, and roughish. Spikelets alternate, 

 compressed, the lower ones liaving mostly two tjlumes : the outer one 

 as long as the spikelets, frequently lialf as long again, lanceolate, nu- 

 merously ribbed ; the inner .small, membranous, close pressed fo the 

 channel of the rachis, gradually diminishing in size in each upper 

 spikelet, at length entirely disappearing. Cllumelles equal : the outer 

 concave, with four indistinct ribs near the membranous margin, and a 

 slight keel terminating in a roughish awn of greater or less length and 



