96 GRAMINEAL 
stems, which grow in close tufts. It was introduced into culture in this 
country from Italy. 
3. Annual Flax Rye-grass (L. linicola).—Spikelets many-flowered, 
oblong or egg-shaped ; outer glume longer than its awn, or awnless ; tumid 
in fruit ; root annual, without leafy shoots. This is described in the old floras 
as having been found in cultivated fields near Catterick Bridge, in Yorkshire, 
and about Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, though no authentic specimens appear to 
exist. 
4. Darnel (L. temuléntum).—Spikelets about 6-flowered, as long as or 
shorter than the glume; flowering glumes awned or awnless, swollen in 
fruit. Annual. In one form there are long rigid awns, about as long as 
the flowering glume ; in the other there are short awns, or none. The stem 
of this grass is round, rough at the upper part, erect, two or three feet high, 
bearing in July a spike sometimes nearly a foot long, composed of rather 
large spikelets arranged in two rows, on a rough stalk. The leaves are flat, 
acute, and rough on the upper side, and the plant would attract attention 
by its large size, as well as by being unlike any other of the grasses likely 
to be found among our corn. It cannot, however, be called altogether a 
common grass; for though extremely abundant in the cultivated fields of 
some of our counties, where it is a sad annoyance to the farmers, yet it is a 
local grass quite unknown in many districts. 
The Darnel grows among barley, rye, or wheat, and when in the wheat- 
field it so resembles the corn while as yet but in blade, that the cultivator 
can hardly venture to eradicate the weed, lest he should despoil the crop. 
Our forefathers believed, that in wet summers the wheat degenerated into 
Darnel ; and in some retired districts this notion is still entertained, as well 
as the equally absurd one that rye, in unfavourable seasons, turns into the 
brome-grass, so common in the rye-field. Hence B. secalinus received its 
specific name from Secale, the rye, and was long called smooth rye. So 
prevalent was formerly the belief in these changes, that Linnzus found it 
necessary to write a dissertation in order to refute these opinions. The 
Darnel is the only grass known, or rather suspected, to be poisonous. There 
seems no doubt that this plant is the infelix loliwm of Virgil, for ancient as 
well as modern botanists attributed poisonous properties to it, and centuries 
since laws were made in China, forbidding its use in fermented liquors. If, 
however, poisonous, it is so only when fermented with the barley malted for 
beer, or when the bread in the flour of which it is mingled is eaten hot. 
Some of our best botanists, as well as the great chemists of modern times, 
like Dr. Taylor and Professor Johnston, believe that it is poisonous under 
these circumstances. It is remarkable, however, that neither Pfaff nor our 
own chemist, Professor Johnston, could, by the nicest tests of the volatile oil 
yielded by the seeds of Darnel, detect any noxious principle, nor any volatile 
alkali like the narcotic of tobacco ; and some botanists believe, with Professor 
Lindley, that the noxious properties, thus from generation to generation 
believed to exist in Darnel, are either altogether imaginary, or that their 
effects are greatly exaggerated. The symptoms said to arise from eating 
these seeds are vomiting, staggering, impaired vision, and violent tremors, 
similar to those experienced by persons who suffer from disorders consequent 
