CLASS ill. ORDER ix. J ROTTBOLLIA. 165 



rigidity. The awn is the only character by which L. a-rvensia is con- 

 sidered as a distinct species from the present ; but the variable length 

 which it is found leads me to consider it only as a variety : the inner 

 valve membranous, with two lateral roughish ribs. Fruit oblong, 

 furrowed on one side. 



Habitat, Corn-fields. Frequent in various parts of England and 

 Ireland, less so in Scotland. 



Annual ; flowering in July. 



This is the only species among the grasses that produces grain with 

 any deleterious properties. It appears to possess powerful narcotic, 

 and at the same time acrid qualities, producing disagreeable and even 

 fatal effects. Seeger, in the experiments which he made with it, found 

 it always to cause general tremor of the body; and Cordier found, by 

 experiments which he made upon himself, that, by eating bread made 

 with the flour, he felt confusion of sight and ideas, languor, heaviness, 

 and alternate attacks of somnolency and vomiting. Serious accidents 

 have sometimes occurred by its accidental mixture with wheaten flour, 

 but in this country it does not grow in sufficient quantity to be often 

 of any serious consequence. It is said to be used sometimes for giving 

 an intoxicating quality to fermented liquors ; and in China and Japan, 

 where it also grows, its use is forbidden by law. The deleterious 

 effects of lolium appear to have been long known. Among the Arabs 

 it is called zivan, and it is thought the word rosch in some instances 

 means the same thing. It is generally supposed that it is this plant 

 which is referred to by Virgil 



" in torque nitentiae culta 



Infelix Lolium, et sterilis dominantur avenee ;" 



for, in warm climates, Lolium and the barren Oat sometimes grow so 

 rank and abundant as to choke the Wheat. The late Sir J. D. Mi- 

 challes and others think that the Greek word *, which is trans- 

 lated tares in our text of the 13th chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel, the 

 25th and following verses, would be better darnel, and would convey 

 the meaning of the parable more fully. From the parable above quoted, 

 it will appear with what care the Jews disposed of the base grain, by 

 destroying it in the field with fire, after selecting it from the Wheat. 



GENUS L. ROTTBOL'LIA. LINN. Hard-grass. 



GEN. CHAR. Inflorescence a two-sided spike. Spikelets alternate, one 

 or two flowered. Glumes of two valves, sometimes single, lateral. 

 Glumelles two, awnless, imbedded in the notches of the rachis. 

 Named in honour of Rottboll, a Professor of Botany at Copen- 

 hagen. 



1. R. incurva'ta, Linn. (Fig. 209.) Sea Hard-grass, Spike cyliu- 

 drical, tapering ; glumes united at the base. 



