VARIETIES CULTIVATED. 211 



produce a smaller quantity of root-leaves and a greater 

 quantity of culms, are termed annual ryegrasses; but 

 even these last will, under favourable circumstances, last 

 two or three years, while, under unfavourable circum- 

 stances, the most esteemed perennial varieties will scarcely 

 exist more than one year. Of those termed annual, there 

 is only one variety in cultivation. But even sorts which 

 are most permanent in their characters, or such as are 

 most capable of producing the same sort from seed, have 

 become so much changed in habits and characters, from 

 the effects of continued culture upon different soils and 

 under different circumstances, as no longer to retain any 

 traces of the properties for which they might have been 

 originally distinguished. 



2. Lolium italicum Italian Ryegrass. This species 

 differs from the foregoing (perenne) in its more vigorous 

 growth, and in its bearded spikelets containing many more 

 florets. The whole plant is of a lighter colour, it grows 

 more erect, tillers much less, and is hardly more than a 

 biennial under the ordinary circumstances of cultivation. 

 By some botanists it is classed merely as a variety of the 

 L. perenne, as the presence or absence of the awn in the 

 Gramineae does not properly constitute a sufficiently per- 

 manent specific character, as it is frequently caused by 

 the effects of climate, soil, &c. The farmer, however, has 

 less hesitation or difficulty in their respective classification 

 than the botanist. They possess other distinctive charac- 

 ters, which, although of but small consequence in the esti- 

 mation of the man of science, are (some of them, at all 

 events) of considerable importance to the man of practice, 

 the farmer. 



Compared with the ordinary varieties of the Common 

 ryegrass (L. perenne), the Italian ryegrass affords a 

 stronger braird, arrives sooner at maturity, has a greater 

 abundance of foliage, which is broader, and of a lighter 



