134 HORTUS GRAMINEUS WOBL RIN E N SIS. 



considerable ; and it maintains its place when once in pos- 

 session of the soil. Horses and oxen are very fond of it ; I 

 have observed thetn eat it closer to the ground than they did 

 the surrounding herbage of cock's-foot, tall oat-like soft- 

 grass, ray-grass, and cow clover. Its produce is very inferior 

 when cultivated on a clayey soil, for which it appears unfit. 

 The seeds vegetate readily when sown about the end of April 

 or in the beginning of May. 



It conies into flower about the middle of May, and the 

 seed is ripe about the middle and end of June. 



LOLIUM perenne. Rye-grass*, Perennial Darnel, Ray- 

 grass, Perennial Rye-grass. 



Specijic character : Spike awnless ; calyx shorter than the 

 spikelet; florets lanceolate. Fig.]. Spikelet. 2. Flo- 

 ret. 3. Germen and stigmas. 4. Nectary. 



Obs. — The varieties of this species are very numerous: as 

 the slender ray-grass (var. temie), see our figure ; the 

 compound, or broad-spiked ray-grass (var. compositum) ; 

 Pacey's ray-grass (var. ramosum); Russell's grass (Rns- 

 sellianum), see our figure ; Whitworth's grass ( Whit- 

 worthiensis) ; Stickney's grass {Stichieiensis); panicled 

 ray-grass (panicu/atum); double-flowered ray-grass {mon- 

 slrostim); viviparous Yay-grass (oivipanmi) ; and varieties 

 of these, according to the age of the plant and the soil 

 it grows in. The first variety (teniie) is common to dry 

 pasture land that has been impoverished and worn out 

 by injudicious cropping ; it is distinguished from the 

 other varieties by its perfectly upright spike, which is 

 slender, and the spikelets small and distant from each 

 other, consisting of three to five flowers ; the root-leaves 

 are very narrow and few in number; the culms are 

 almost naked or destitute of leaves. The second variety 

 {compositam) grows in a richer soil, or in soils that have 

 been long under grass, and is there for the most part 



'* It should be ray-grass, from the Fiencli ivralc or yvre, drwnkeii , 

 in allusion to the noxious qualities of tlie larger ray-grass, or darnel 

 (lol'mm teynidentum). 



