362 



MANUAL OF POISONOUS PLANTS 



Fig. 151. Darnel (Lolium temulentum) . b. Spike- 

 let, a. Empty glume. U. S. Dept. Agr. 



Distribution. Naturalized in eastern North America and abundantly so 

 on the Pacific Coast. 



Poisonous properties. It is a well known fact that a number of grasses 

 are poisonous. It was well recognized by the ancients that darnel (Lolium 

 temulentum) was poisonous, for it is written: "But while men slept, his 

 enemies came and sowed tares among the wheat." 



Darnel, when ground up with wheat and made into flour, is said to produce 

 poisonous effects on the system, such as headache and drowsiness. This poison- 

 ous property is said to reside in a narcotic principle, loliin, a dirty white, 

 amorphous, bitter substance yielding sugar and volatile acids, which, according 

 to Hackel, "causes eruptions, trembling and confusion of sight in man and 

 flesh-eating animals, and very strongly in rabbits, but it does not effect swine, 

 horned cattle or ducks." Lindley states that the grain is of evil repute for 

 intoxication in man, beast and birds, and brings on fatal convulsions^ Haller 



