PLATE 51. 



COMMON DARNEL, Lolium temulentum, L. 



Other English names : Poison Darnel, White Darnel, Ivray, Poison 

 Hye-grass, Bearded Darnel. 



Other Latin names: Lolium arvense, With.; Lolium temulentum, L., 

 var. a genuinum, Sm. ; Lolium temulentum, L., var. b arvense, Sm. 



Introduced. Annual, smooth. Stems 2 to 4 feet hi<?h, t-imple, leafy. 

 Flowers in a spike 6 to 10 inches long; somewhat resembling that of Couch 

 Grass, but having the edges of the spikelets, instead of the broadsides as in 

 Couch, resting against the stalk; spikelets 3 to 7-flowered, solitary, sessile 

 and alternate, with their edges fitting tightly into grooves on either side of 

 the stalk ; each spikelet in the axil of a long rigid strongly nerved, persistent 

 glume or empty scale, which merely equals or is much longer than the spike- 

 lets. Leaves 6 to 10 inches long by inch wide, rough above. Seeds swol- 

 len, nearly straight on the outer face, much swollen on the inner, with a deep 

 wide groove, the inner scale of the husk with a wing-like keel on each side, 

 minutely bristly on the edges, but not coarsely bristly ciliate as in Chess, 

 Ltromus seealinus; outer scale hard and flinty as in the chaff of wheat, and 

 either with a long awn in the variety genuinum, which is the more widely dis- 

 tributed form of this weed in- Canada, or entirely without awn in the variety 

 arvense, which has recently appeared in great abundance at certain points 

 in the Red River Valley in Manitoba, where the seed was spoken of as 

 "False Barley" when first detected. The true seed after the husks have been 

 removed is greenish brown often tinged with deep purple. 



Time of Flowering: July; seeds ripe August. 

 Propagation : By seed. 



Occurrence : Occasional, generally in wet land ; abundant recently in 

 parts of the Red River valley, Manitoba. 



Injury : The husks cover the seed very tightly, the inner scale being 

 adherent to it ; in that condition the seeds are very much of the same size 

 as small grains of wheat; they are therefore very difficult to separate from 

 that grain. 



The seeds of Darnel are widely reputed to be poisonous ; but there seems 

 to be some doubt upon the subject. In "The True Grasses," by Eduard 

 Hackel, as translated by Prof. F. L. Scribner and Effie A. Southworth, 

 is the following: "A weed among grain crops; troublesome in wet years. 

 The grain contains a narcotic principle (Loliin) soluble in ether, which 

 causes eruptions, trembling and confusion of sight in man and flesh-eatin;? 

 animals, and very strongly in rabbits; but it does not affect swine, horned 

 cattle or ducks." 



Prof. E. M. Freeman, of the University of Minnesota, has made some 

 important investigations into the question of the origin of darnel poisoning, 

 and in commenting on the' discovery by P. Guerin, of Paris, France, of a 

 fungus in the seeds of Darnel, to which he attributed the poisonous effects, 

 says as follows under date April 3rd, 1906 : "In California Darnel is ex- 

 ceedingly abundant, and is known as Chess or Cheat. It sometimes 



94 



