LOLIUM MULTIFLORUM. 205 



LOLIUM MULTIFLORUM. 



LOWE. HOOKER AND ARNOTT. KOCH. 

 PLATE LXVII. B. 



Lolium italicum, BRAUN. BABINGTON. 



" perenne, var. italicum, PARNELL. 



The Bearded Rye- Grass, or Italian Rye-Grass. 

 Lolium Darnel. Multiflorum Many-flowered. 



OUPPOSED to have been introduced into England from Italy. 

 kJ/ Stem upright, rough, and striated, bearing four or five lanceolate, 

 flat, acute leaves, with harsh sheaths, upper one longer than its leaf. 

 Inflorescence spiked. Spike from five to eight inches long. Spikelets 

 from fourteen to twenty in number, composed of one glume, and from 

 seven to eleven awned florets, the terminal one having two glumes. 

 Glume linear-lanceolate. Florets of two equal-sized paleae, five-ribbed. 

 Styles two. Stigmas lengthy and plumose. Filaments three. Anthers 

 lengthy, narrow, and notched at either extremity. Length from twenty- 

 five to sixty inches. Root perennial and fibrous. 



Flowers at the commencement of July. 



A most valuable agricultural Grass, when cultivated on a rich deep 

 soil. 



Var. submuticum. With large spikelets and short awns. 



Var. ramosum. Branched. 



The specimen illustrated was gathered at Beeston, near Nottingham. 



