122 Bulletin VII. 1. 



Perennial Rye-grass is a native of the Old World, and has been 

 cultivated in England for more than two hundred years. In moist 

 cool climates it is a most excellent pasture grass for heavy soils. 

 Under favorable conditions it will last for seven years or more. It 

 is probably not so valuable a grass as the Italian Rye-grass, from 

 which it differs in being distinctly stoloniferous, in its darker- 

 green leaves, which are simply folded (not rolled) in the bud, and 

 in its awnless floral glumes. 



2. Lolium Italicum A. Br. Italian Rye-grass. 



Plate XLIV. Figure 176. 



A biennial or perennial grass two to three feet high, with slen- 

 der, usually somewhat nodding terminal spikes. Sheaths nearly 

 smooth; ligule very short, scarious; leaf-blade four to eight inches 

 long, two to three lines wide. Spikes six inches to nearly a foot 

 long; spikelets five to eight lines long, six- to fifteen-flowered; 

 flowering glumes scabrous near the summit, awned. Awn slen- 

 der, about the length of the glume. 



Introduced and cultivated to some extent. Italian Ray- or Rye- 

 grass is an excellent grass for rich and rather moist lands. It is 

 a very rapid grower, forms a dense turf, and in Europe is regarded 

 as one of the best grasses for hay. On heavy clays or on any very 

 dry soil it does not do so well, but on good calcareous loams or 

 marls, or on moist loamy sands when the condition of the land is 

 good, the yield is large. 



3. Lolium temulentum Linn. Bearded Darnel. 



Plate XLV. Figure 177. 



An annual, with smooth stout culm, two to three feet high. 

 Sheaths scabrous; ligule short. Spike six to twelve inches long. 

 Spikelets five- to seven-flowered; empty glumes sharp-pointed, as 

 long as the spikelet; flowering glumes turgid, awned or awnless, 

 shorter and broader than in L. perenne. 



In grain fields and waste places, not common. The grain of 

 this species is narcotic in its effect upon man and flesh-eating 

 animals. 



59. AGROPYRUMGaertn. Nov. Cormm. Petrop. u, P. I., 539 (1770.) 



Spikelets three to many-flowered, closely sessile, and sing-le at 

 each notch of a narrow terminal spike, the side of the spikelet 

 placed next to the axis; rachilla articulated above the empty 

 glumes under each flowering glume; flowering glumes rounded 

 on the back, or slightly keeled above, five- to seven-nerved, acute 

 or awned from the apex, rarely obtuse. Palea two-keeled, bristly- 

 ciliate on the keels. Grain pubescent at the apex, usually adher- 

 ent to the palea. 



Perennial grasses, with erect simple culms and terminal, often 

 bearded spikes ("heads"). 



