RYE 



RYE-ORAB8 



Utter of quite modern construction. Fielding in 

 1753 described Ryde as ' a pleasant village, separ- 

 ated at low-wateV from the sea by an impassable 

 gulf of mud ; ' but now there are excellent sands, 

 and the appearance of the town with its streets 

 and villas mtersiMsrsed with trees is plea-sing and 

 picturesque. The longer of the two piers (768 

 feet) was constructed in 1813-61 ; uf the buildings 

 may be noticed the town-hall ( 1831 ) ; All Saints' 

 Church (1870), by Scott, with a spire 173 feet 

 high; St Mary's Roman Catholic Church (1840), 

 by Hansom ; and the Royal Victoria Yacht Club- 

 house ( 1847 ). Ryde was made a municipal borough 

 in 1868. Pop. (1811) 1601; (1851)7147; (1881) 

 11,461 ; (1891) 10,952. 



Kvr. a decayed seaport of Sussex, 11 miles NE. 

 of Hastings, and 2 miles inland now owing to the 

 retirement of the sea. It stands on an eminence 

 bounded east by the Rother, south and west by 

 the Tillingliam, and presents a quaint, old-world 

 aspect. On a rock overlooking the confluence of 

 the streams is the 12th-century Ypres Tower (now 

 a police station), built in Stephen's reign by 

 William <le Ypres; the church, mainly Norman 

 and Early Bagluh in style, and one of the largest 

 in the Icingdmn, was restored in 1883. Then 

 there are the old Land Gate, a former Carmelite 

 cha]>el, and a grammar-school (1638). The Norus 

 Portia of Ptolemy, Rye was granted by the Con- 

 fessor to Fecamp Abbey, and by Henry III. was 

 made a Cinque Port (q. v.). It became a Huguenot 

 asylum after 1562 and 1685 (Thackeray's Deni* 

 Duval is laid here) ; and it returned two members 

 till 1832, and then one till 1885. Fletcher the 

 dramatist was a native. Pop. (1841) 4071; (1881) 

 4224 ; ( 1891 ) 3871. See Holloway's History of Rye 

 (1847). 



Rye (Secale), a genus of grasses, allied to Wheat 

 and Barley, and having spikes which generally 

 consist of two-flowered, rarely of three-flowered, 

 spikelets ; the florets furnished with terminal 

 awns, only the upper floret stalked. One species 

 (S. cereale) is a well-known grain. It has, when 

 in fruit, a roundish-quadrangular spike, with a 

 touch rachis. Its native country, as in the case 

 of the other most important cereals, is somewhat 

 doubtful ; but it is said to be found wild in the 

 desert regions near the Caspian Sea, and on the 

 highest mountains of the Crimea. It has long 

 been cultivated as a cereal plant ; although the 

 supposed mention of it in Exodus, ix. 32, is doubt- 

 ful, spelt being perhaps intended. It is much 

 cultivated in the north of Europe and in some 

 parts of Asia. Its cultivation does not extend so 

 far north as that of barley ; but it grows in regions 

 too cold for wheat, and on soils too poor and sandy 

 for any other grain. Its ripening can also be more 

 confidently reckoned upon in cold regions than 

 that of any other grain. But rye succeeds best, 

 and is most productive, in a climate where wheat 

 Mill ripens. It delights in sandy soils. The 

 varieties of rye are numerous, although much less 

 BO than those of other important cereals. Some 

 are best lilted for sowing in autumn, others for 

 sowing in spring. The former kinds (Winter 

 Rye) are most extensivejy cultivated, being 

 generally the most productive. In some places 

 on the continent of Europe rye is sown at mid- 

 summer, mowed for green fodder in autumn, and 

 left to shoot in spring, which it does at the same 

 time with autumn-sown rye, producing a good 

 crop of small l'iit very mealy grain. In Britain 

 rye is not a common grain-crop, and is cultivated 

 to a smaller extent than it formerly was; the 

 tandy soils, to which it is best adapted, l>eing 

 XDpraved anil lilted for other kinds of com. It 

 i-. however, sometimes sown to be tmed a a green 



crop, for feeding sheep and oxen in winter, and 

 is found particularly good for milch cows. It is 

 sometimes also mown tor horses and other animals. 

 Bread made of rye is much used in the north of 

 Europe; it is the familiar ' black -bread ' of < 

 many, and the main sustenance of the Russian 

 peasant throughout large regions. It is of a dark 

 colour, more laxative than that made of wheat- 

 flour, and, i"-ih;ips. rather less nutritions. Rye 

 is much used for fermentation and distillation, 

 particularly for the making of Holland*. The 

 Russian beer called krass is made from rye- 

 meal. Rye affected with Ergot (q.v.) is a vl-i\ 

 dangerous article of food. The straw of rye i- 

 tougher than that of any other corn-plant, and 

 is much valued for straw-plait. Perennial Hye 

 (S. ferenne) differs from common rye in having 

 a very bud, red-like culm ; ears, 3 to 5 inches 

 long, flatly compressed, with a brittle rachis, and 

 fifty to sixty clo-dy imbricated spikelets. It en- 

 dures for many years, but is not much cultivated, 

 as its grain is slender, and does not yield an easily 

 separable flour. 



Rye-jfTUSS (Lolium), a genus of grasses, hav- 

 ing a two-rowed, flatly -compressed spike, the 

 spikelete appressed edgewise to the racliis. Per- 

 ennial Rye (L. perenne), the Ray-grass of the older 

 English authors, is frequent on waysides, and in 

 meadows and pastures, in Britain and on the 

 continent of Europe. The leaf is highly glazed. 

 naiTow tipped, has an obtuse ligule, surrounded 

 by an auricle or collar-like portion of blade ; whilst 



Fig. 1. Perennial Rye-grass ( IMium pcrenne) in flower, 



showing united root tufts : 



a, a iplkelet In flower. 



the younger leaves are folded throughout their 

 length on the midrib when emerging from the 

 purple sheath. The spikelete are much longer 

 than their solitary external glume, six to eight 

 flowered; the florets awnless or nearly so: the 

 culm flattened, from 1 foot to 2 feet high ; the root 

 producing leafy barren shoots, which add niueh to 

 the agricultural value of the grass. This grass is 

 highly valued for forage and hay, and is more 

 extensively sown for these uses than any other 

 grass, not only in Britain, but also on the con- 

 tiin'iit of Europe and in North America. It grows 

 well even on very poor soils. The Perennial Kye 

 is the kind most generally cultivated. Between 

 1882 and 1890 there was much discussion in 

 England as to whether or not rye-grass is really 



