572 
CVII. GRAJIINEjE. 
[ Lolium. 
39. Lolium Linn. Rye-grass. (Tab. VIII. f. 36.) 
■ 
Spikelets solitary, compressed, approximate, placed edgewise 
to the canaliculate rachis, alternate, with 3 or more perfect 
florets. Glumes solitary, or 2 placed edgewise to the rachis and 
the one next it small ; lower one with several nerves, about as 
long as or longer than the lowest contiguous floret. Glumellas 
2, outer one awnless or awned. — Name: \aiov o\eiv, to destroy 
the crop ; or rather from loin, the appellation in Celtic of L. ie- 
mulentum, to which the ancients as well as the moderns attri- 
buted poisonous qualities. In some countries, it is erroneously 
believed that the wheat changes into darnel. 
O' 
jjssi 
111 ! 
lave 
ltd 
1. L. perenne L. ( perennial or beardless R.) ; spikelets 6 — 8- 
flowered, glume solitary scarcely longer than the lowest floret, 
florets lanceolate awnless or nearly so, root producing leafy 
barren shoots. E. B. t. 315 : Pam. Gr. t. 65. 
* 1 “ 
eii| 
. 
Way-sides, pastures, and waste places, frequent. If. or 6, 7. 
— Culms I — 2 feet high. Spike with the general aspect of Triticum 
repens, sometimes, from luxuriance when cultivated, compound. 
Florets linear-oblong, nerved. The root, which is perennial in the 
wild plant, ceases to be so in particular situations, and becomes 
biennial even when the greatest care has been taken to obtain the 
seed from genuine perennial plants. 
[2. L. * Itdlicum A. Braun ( Italian R.) ; spikelets 6 — 14- 
flowered, glume solitary scarcely as long as the lowest floret, 
florets lanceolate with a long awn, roots producing leafy barren 
shoots. L. perenne var. Pam. Gr. tt. 138, 139, 140, 141. L. 
perenne /3. aristatum Bab. f L. multiflorum Brit. FI. 
Many parts of England and Scotland, but apparently only near 
places where it had been cultivated. If or J . 6. — The perennial 
state of this species appears to be the wild one, the root having, 
like the preceding species, become biennial by over-cultivation ; 
we fear too that L. multijlorum Lam. is another degenerated form, 
the root having become annual, and no longer capable of producing 
leafy barren shoots. It appears to us to differ in no respect from the 
preceding species, except by the awn. Some botanists however con- 
sider that both have sometimes awned spikelets and that they differ 
by L. perenne having the young leaves simply folded, the other with 
their margins involute.] 
[3. L. * linicola Sonder (annual or Flax R.) ; spikelets oblong 
or ovate 7 — 11 -flowered, glume solitary reaching to the middle 
(or further) of the spikelet, florets shortly awned or awnless 
elliptical in fruit tumid, root annual without barren leafy 
