The Book of Grasses 



Lolium temulenium — supposed by some to have been the "tares 

 among the wheat" mentioned in St. Matthew's Gospel. This 

 latter species, the Darnel, an annual occasionally found as a weed 

 in grain fields, is remarkable for the poisonous quality of its seeds 

 which cause serious trouble if the "tares" are gathered with the 

 wheat and the seeds find their way to the mill with the pure grain. 

 The most noticeable difference between this grass and Ray-grass, 

 to which the name of Darnel is sometimes erroneously applied, is 

 that in the true Darnel the long outer scale fully equals, and often 

 exceeds, its spikelet in length. In Scotland the name of "Sleep- 

 ies" has been given to Darnel on account of the narcotic effect of 

 its seeds, though more recently it has been said that only the dis- 

 eased, or ergotized, grain is poisonous. 



Italian Rye-grass {Lolium multifldrum) has been brought in 

 later years to the United States. From either of the preceding 

 species it is distinguished by its ten to twenty-flowered spikelets. 



Ray-grass. Rye-grass. Ray-darnel. Lolium perenne L. 



Perennial. Naturalized from Europe. 



Stem 1-3 ft. tall, erect. Ligule short. Leaves 2'-8' long, \"-2^" wide, 

 fiat, roughish. 



Spike 3'-9' long, narrow. Spikelets 5-12-flowered, 4"-8" long, green, 

 solitary, sessile on alternate notches of the rachis; edge of each spike- 

 let (or backs of the scales) turned toward the rachis. Two empty 

 scales in terminal spikelet, only one empty scale in other spikelets. 

 Empty scale acute or obtuse, dark green, thick, strongly nerved; 

 flowering scales acute or short-awned, occasionally obtuse; palets 

 nearly as long as flowering scales. Stamens 3. 



Fields, waysides, and waste grounds. June to August. 



Canada to North Carolina and Tennessee, also in California and Arizona. 



COUCH-GRASS, BEARDED WHEAT-GRASS, AND 

 PURPLE WHEAT-GRASS 



In June the Couch-grass suddenly appears by the waysides and 

 as the worst of weeds in cultivated lands; the stout leafy stems 

 and flattened two-sided spikes apparently having sprung up in a 

 night. This species varies greatly in appearance, especially near 

 the seacoast, but it is always unlike other grasses, with the possible 

 exception of Ray-grass from which it is distinguished by the posi- 

 tion of the spikelets, those of Ray-grass being placed edgewise, 



232 



