174 



support of such statement, it is far from improbable that experiments of 

 the kind have been made. Professor Burnet, in his " Outlines of Botany," 

 published in 1835, informs us, that " a few years ago two acres of ground 

 in Battersea Fields were sown with this grain," — adding, " to what 

 good purpose it coiild have been applied is unknown, for, although 

 Darnel meal was once recommended as a sedative cataplasm, it has 

 long been disused." The crop to which he refers was visited by 

 myself, and specimens selected from it are still in my possession, as 

 well as from two other fields in Surrey, the property at the time being 

 in the possession of one of the partners in a well-known London firm. 

 This was more than twenty years past, and I have not since met with 

 the plant in any other position than that of an agricultural weed. 



Our English name of Eay-grass is a corruption, or rather con- 

 traction of the French ivraie, from ivre, drunk, bestowed on the species 

 in allusion to its intoxicating effects. The seeds of Loliurn perenne, 

 being supposed harmless in this respect, the latter is often denominated 

 fausse ivraie ; their actually wholesome character seems, however, as 

 remarked under our notice of the species, very doubtful, although 

 growing in situations where it does not interfere with human health, 

 the presence of any corresponding quality has hitherto escaped ob- 

 servation. 



Most English writers, botanical as well as agricultural, apply the 

 name of Rye-grasses to the species of this genus, an orthography 

 liable to mislead, as there is no foundation for such title beyond the 

 belief of the peasantry in some rye-growing countries, that rye is apt to 

 degenerate into Darnel ; a supposition equally prevalent in regard to 

 wheat and barley, among the ignorant in lands where the Lolium 

 lemulentum is more common than it is with us. 



The only well-authenticated instance of actually poisonous character 

 in grasses is that of the one before us ; though certain species of 

 Broinus, Festuca, and other genera, are said to be unwholesome, and 

 some tropical grasses have the repute of proving fatal to cattle that 

 feed upon them. 



Genus 15. LEPTUEUS. Hard Grass. 



Gen. Char. Inflorescence spicate. Spike solitary, slender, cylindrical, 

 zigzag, jointed, eventually separating at the joints. Spikelets 

 solitary in each joint, alternately imbedded on opposite sides of 

 the rachis, one- or two-flowered. Glumes one or two, cartilaginous, 

 ribbed, collateral, on the opposite side from the rachis, covering 

 the flowers. Palese of the fertile flower, two, scarious, awnless. 



One of the glumes, anomalous in position as regards the spikelet, 

 both being placed outwardly, may be considered as the representative 

 of a second spikelet, the flower or flowers of which are undeveloped. 



The genus is a small one, not very well defined, and presents only a 



