LdUum.2 <^VII- GRAMINEiE. 573 



The ancients as well as the moderns attributed poisonous qua- 

 lities to the L. temulentum ; and even now it is erroneously be- 

 lieved in some countries that the Wheat changes into DarneL 



1. L. perenne L. (perennial or beardless R,); spikelets 6 — 8- 

 flowered, glume solitary scarcely longer than the lowest floret, 

 florets lanceolate awnless or nearly so, root producing leafy 

 barren shoots. E. B. t. 315 : Parn. Gr. t. 65. 



Way-sides, pastures, and waste places, frequent. If or ^. 

 6,7. — Culms 1 — 2 feet high. Spike with the general aspect of 

 Tritkum repensy sometinies, from luxuriance when cultivated, com- 

 pound. Florets linear-oblong, nerved. What is supposed to be a 

 variety is found by Mr. H. C. Watson, at East Moulsey, with awns 

 as long as in the following, and this is probably Mr. Babington's var. 

 aristatum; but if the two species are not to be characterized by the 

 spike. J ^^"' ^^^ ^^^^ *l^^y niust be conjoined. The root, which is perennial 



florets 1 '^V- ^^^ ^^'^'^ plant, ceases, as is well known to every agriculturist, to 



Ibrous I ^^ ^^ particular situations, and becomes biennial even when the 



t 79(1 1 greatest care has been taken to obtain the seed from genuine peren- 



* nial plants. Some foreign botanists and Mr. Babington allow that 



" both have awned spikelets and say they differ by L, perenne having 



s 2 feet the young leaves simply folded, the other with their margins invo- 



5urface, lute. If such be the only distinction, it is surely a most subtle and 



ter^/i/- uncertain one, and they had better be conjoined, as proposed by Bar- 



hairy; toloni and Dr. Parnell. 



2. L. "^ multiflorum Lam. (bearded J?.); spikelets 6 — 14- 

 flowered, glume solitary scarcely so long as the lowest floret, 

 florets lanceolate awned, roots producing leafy barren shoots. 



florets J L. Italicum A. Braun. L. perenne var. Parn. Gr. tt. 138, 139 



140,141. 



' floret, 

 ■ous or 



olds an 



f^dricai 

 imella^ 



i 



ted on 



ikelets 



leaves 



Many parts of England and Scotland, but apparently only near 

 places where it had been cultivated. It or ^5 sometimes ©. 6. 

 We consider the perennial form of this species to be the wild one. 

 Cum- I the root having, like the preceding species, become biennial or even 



nerset, | annual by over-cultivation. Like it, too, when once degenerated, 



Jorset. I the seeds never again produce a perennial root. 



■^A I 3. L. "^ linicola Sander (annual or Flax E.); spikelets oblong 



^^^ I or ovate 7— 11 -flowered, glume solitary reaching to the middle 



(or further) of the spikelet, florets shortly awned or awnless 

 , elliptical in fruit tumid, root annual without barren leafy 



*^ shoots. — Mitten in Land. Jnn'rn Rnt vn* TA E^^ ' T7 1^ iJ 



tu 





t. 2955. 



On cultivated land, amongst various crops, about Hurstpierre- 

 pornt, Sussex; field near Catterick Bridge, Yorkshire. 0. 7.^ 

 With this we are not well acquainted, and authentic specimens ap- 

 pear to have been equally unknown to Kunth. It seems to be truly 

 annual, and scarcely to differ from the next. 



4. L. temulentum L. (Darnel) ; spikelets about 6-flowered 



