168 



divaricated or spreading outward from the main rachis, a second small 

 inner one is sometimes, indeed not unfrequently, present. Paleae two, 

 equal, usually awnless ; the outer one smooth, five- veined, membrana- 

 ceous ; the inner one linear, with two green marginal fringed veins. 



Usually considered to be perennial, but doubtftiUy so. Flowers 

 fi'om June to September. 



The varieties, natural and cultivated, seem all but unlimited ; among 

 the former may rank Lolium linicola, Sonder. E. B. Supp. 2955. 

 L. multiflomm of the British Flora, and L. tenue ; among the latter, 

 L. Italicum, Braun, the Italian Ray Grass, or rye grass of agricul- 

 turists. The last is strikingly distinguished from the other forms of 

 L.perenne by the long slender awns of the flowers ; but does not appear 

 to have any claim to be considered as a species, though its origin is 

 unknown. 



No species of grass has ever attracted so much interest amongst our 

 agriculturists as that now before us, and, especially in the more recent 

 times, when it has become one of the most important agents of the 

 " convertible system of husbandry." Its fame, however, is of long 

 standing. The earliest mention of its cultivation in England is by 

 Dr. Plot, the learned author of ' The Natural History of Oxfordshire,' 

 published in 1677, and that of ' Staffordshire ' at a later period. In 

 the former work he observes : " They have lately sown ray grass, 

 gramen loUaceum, to improve cold, sour, clayey, weeping ground, unfit 

 for saint-foin." It was first sown in the Chiltern district of the county 

 in question, and afterwards at Islip, by a person of the name of Eustace. 



Being the first pasture grass, apparently, artificially grown or culti- 

 vated by Europeans, its value for the purpose was probably previously 

 enhanced beyond its due estimation, whence doubts are frequently 

 entertained by practical farmers respecting the high encomiums that 

 are lavished upon it by some agricultural writers. I believe that a 

 careful investigation of the subject would tend to invalidate much of 

 the abuse occasionally bestowed upon this grass, and to remove the 

 doubt as to its relative value in farming ; both of which are due to its 

 mistaken application ; and are, farther, the result of absence of method 

 in adapting practice to circumstance. So much is expected of and 

 required from it, that it does not always answer the demand. To 

 determine whether we are justified in this assumption, let us examine 

 a little into the character and capabilities of the species, and summon 

 to our aid a few witnesses to both, selecting the latter from difierent 

 periods in the history of its cultivation. In the first place let it be well 

 understood that there is not any grass more liable to variation in dura- 

 bility, produce, or nutrijtious properties than this; which is, in some soils 

 and situations, perennial, in others biennial, or even annual — ^here it is 

 redundant in the development of herbage, there thin and deficient. 

 In one form it is succulent and foodful, in another wiry, harsh, and 

 meagre. 



StiUingfleet, writing about a century ago, informs his readers that 

 " this grass is well known and cultivated throughout all England ; and 

 it is to be hoped the success we have had with it will in time encourage 

 our farmers to take the same pains about some others that are no less 



