208 LOLIUM TEMULENTUM. 
one being shorter than its leaf, and having a brief blunt 
ligule at its apex. Joints smooth, and four in number.  In- 
florescence spiked. Spike upright.» Spikelets sessile, placed 
alternately in two rows of four or five awned florets. Rachis 
rough and zigzag. Calyx consisting of one glume, which is 
lengthy and narrow, and having eight ribs. Florets of two 
palee, the exterior one of basal floret seven-ribbed. Apex 
bifid, and having a white harsh awn, more than half the 
length of the palea, and commencing behind the bifid apex. 
Inner palea having two green marginal ribs. The glume 
longer than the spikelet, and smooth, except on the edges. 
Length twenty-four inches. Root annual and fibrous. 
Dr. Parnell describes a variety which grows amongst and is 
equally common with the ordinary form, but which is stouter, 
and the awns of the florets longer. He has named it variety 
Longiaristatum. 
This species flowers at the commencement of July, and 
ripens its seeds in a month. 
The illustration is from a specimen gathered near Hyde, 
in Cheshire, by Mr. Joseph Sidebotham, of Manchester. 
