94 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 



VIRGINIA LYME GRASS {Elymus virginicus L.) 



Plate i6; Seed, Plate 27, Fig. 28. 



Other English names: Bald Rye Grass, Wheat Grass, Terrell Grass. 



Botanical description : Virginia Lyme Grass is perennial with 

 a very short rootstock and therefore grows in dense tufts. The 

 stems, which are generally from two to four feet high, are numerous 

 and densely crowded, smooth and rather slender, leafy to the top 

 and often tinged with purple. The leaves are long and broad, the 

 colour varying from bright green to glaucous. The lower leaves 

 soon become brown and dry and at flowering time are usually all 

 dead. The flowers are in a spikelike inflorescence. The spikelets 

 are not solitary at each joint, as in the genus Agropyron, but are 

 generally in pairs, making the inflorescence dense and crowded. 

 Each spikelet has two sterile glumes at its base and there are con- 

 sequently four sterile glumes at each joint. They are thick and 

 clawlike, bent below, and make a characteristic mark by which 

 Virginia Lyme can be easily distinguished from other Lyme Grasses. 

 A spikelet contains two or three flowers, each enclosed within two 

 narrow glumes. The outer flowering glume, the lemma, is awnless 

 or with a short awn at its tip. When the awn is present the whole 

 spike somewhat resembles that of rye; when it is absent the spike 

 is more like that of wheat — hence the names Bald Rye Grass and 

 Wheat Grass. 



Geographical distribution : Virginia Lyme Grass is indigenous 

 to practically the whole North American continent. In Canada it 

 extends from Nova Scotia to the Rocky Mountains. 



Habitat: It occurs on river banks, along borders of woods and 

 thickets, etc. It is rather common in open woodlands but rare in 

 open ground. This is why it is more frequent in the Maritime 

 Provinces, Quebec and Ontario than in the Prairie Provinces. 



Cultural conditions: Virginia Lyme Grass stands drought 

 and severe cold without injury and makes quite a vigorous growth 

 on light, dry soil where many other grasses give a poor return. 



Agricultural value: Its agricultural value is rather doubtful. 

 It is nutritive and succulent when young, but it quickly loses its 



