^ 



INTROBUCTION. 



\t 



xlv 



I' 



XXXV. 



LOLIUM 



temulentum. 



Annual bearded ^ye-grass. 



The seed of the annual bearded rye-grass 



perennial rye-grass, (No. XVIL), by its long awn 



distinguished at the first sight from that of th 



e 



th 



e 



o 



swoln, shorter, less convex on the back 



o 



th 



e 



seed, when mixed with 



and the furrow on the fac 



is likewise more 



ther grain, and made into bread 



of the seed broad 



This 



Martyn supposes this grass to be the darnel of the Romans 



said to be deleterio 



Professor 



<c 



Interque nitentia culta 



" Infelix lolium et steriles dominantur avenge. 



9 9 



Virg. Georg. I. 15^. 



'3 



It remains, now, only to shew how effectually the mode of 



species 



} 



and varieties, assists th 



arrangmg grasses 



nly to render more certain 



memory ; and particularly of those 



into g 



whose purpose 



IS 



the properties 



d easy the means usually employed to obtain a just knowled^^e of 



comparative merits of the different grasses 



Every species of grass, properly so called, is distinguished from all other plants by the fol 



lowing peculiar structure 



The stem, or straw, is hollow 



d jointed ; the leaves are long, slen 



der, and entire, sheathing or investing the straw for some length, and in number equal to the 



joints of the straw: the flower consists of 



seed 



and the seed h 



only one lob 



two membranaceous husks, which bears but 



d-leaf 



these peculiarities of structure, is a prop 

 natural order of plants. 



Every plant, therefore, that possesses 



s 



pecies of grass ; hence th 



prop 



are called 



But besides this agreement of external structure, grasses are distinguished from other natural 



orders of plants by this property 



more valuabl 



domestic animals 



perhaps the root 



? 



others 



distinctly known, may be included with advant 



that every part of the plant becomes food for the larger and 



Other natural orders of plants afford only the fruit, or seed, 



again are poisonous : it follows, that the properties of plants, when 



All the 



age in their natural characters of distinction 



difference in the qualit 



species which compose this family, may also he distinguished from each other by th 



of the nutritive matter which each 



the greatest affinity to each other in external form, likew 



afford 



Those species which have 



fer less from each 



o 



ther 



ise contain nutritive matters, that dif 



more dissimilar in th 



m their sensible qualities or composition, than those of the species which 



eir 



connection may b 



external fig 



Howev 



which seems to exist between the external form 



circumscribed the knowledge of this 



s 



nd nutritive products of 



