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L O L 
fliree, capillary, Sioifer than the corolla; anthers oblong. 
Piftillum : germ top-fhaped; ftyles two, capillary, reflex; 
ftigtnas plumofe. Pericarpium: none; corolla cherifhes 
fne feed, gapes,'lets it fall. Seed : fingle, oblong, convex 
on one fide, furrowed-flat on the other, comprefTed. The 
feflile fpilces are placed in the fame plane with the culm ; 
hence the Item bears the office of a fecond calycine valve, 
(deficient and oppolite.)— Efential Character. Calyx one- 
l'eafed, fixed, many-flowered. 
Species, i. Loliurn perenne, perennial darnel, or ray- 
grafs: (pike awnlefs ; (pikelets comprefTed, longer than 
the calyx, and compofed of feveral flowers. Root peren¬ 
nial, creeping. Stems feveral from the fame root, prof- 
trate or oblique at the bafe, but the flowering ftem up¬ 
right, fmooth, from fix inches to eighteen, twenty, and 
twenty-four, inches in height, according to the foil; they 
have feveral joints near the bafe, at a fmall diftance from 
each other, but on the upper part only one or two. On 
a great number of plants of a middling fize, three joints, 
and never more than four, were counted by Mr. Profeffor 
Martyn, the flowering Item running up from eleven to 
fourteen inches above the laft joint. They are frequently 
ruflet-coloured at the joints. Leaves four or five inches 
long, and from two to four lines wide, lengthened out 
into a point; the leaf on the ftem above twice as broad 
as thole next the root and on the runners. The (heath 
covers the ftem for feveral inches above the upper joint ; 
both that and the leaves are fmooth. The flowers are in 
a lpike, which is from four to fix or feven, and even nine, 
inches in length, compofed of many (ten to eighteen) 
fpikelets, ranged at a little diftance from each other, in 
two rows alternately along the rachis or common recepta¬ 
cle. The fpike is generally flat, but fometimes nearly 
cylindrical; and it fometimes (hows a difpofition to be¬ 
come branched, particularly towards the bottom. The 
rachis is flexuofe, or changes its direction in a curve line 
from one fpikelet to another; and each fpikelet, being 
lodged at the bafe in a hollow of it, has no occafion for 
an inner valve to the calyx for protection, and therefore 
is not provided with one. The number of flovvers in 
each fpikelet varies from three or four to fix, feven, or 
eight, and even fometimes nine, ten, and eleven ; but fix 
or (even is the molt common number. The valve of the 
.calyx tapers to a point; and the terminating calyx is two¬ 
leaved. The two inner hufks, which are the valves of the 
corolla, are both of the fame length, or nearly fo. The 
germ is placed between the upper of thefe, and two fmall 
white femi-tranfparent fubftances, which Linnseus calls 
the neBaries. The feed eafily quits the chaff. 
There are many varieties of this grafs, differing in fize 
or colour of the ftem and fpike, as well as the number of 
flowers in each fpikelet. The flowers are now and then 
found with awns or beards. The fpikelets alfo are fome¬ 
times cluttered, and fpmetimes branched. 
Perennial darnel is common in molt parts of Europe, 
by way-fides and in paftures, flowering in June. It is 
called in Englifti ray-grafs, from the French ivraie, (tare,) 
which is their name for L. temulentum ; and they call this 
faujfe ivraie. It is corruptly called by farmers rye-grafs; 
but this grafs bears no refemblance to rye; and that is a 
name appropriate to a very different grafs, Hordeum pra- 
tenfe. Mr. Ray names our ray-grafs red darnel-grafs ; in 
fome places it is called crap ; in Devonfhire, eaver\ in Nor¬ 
folk, white ncnefuch. In German it has many names; as 
f erennirendt or dauernde ■lolck , winter lolch, fuffer leleh, &c. In 
Danifh, raigrass ; in Swedifh, renrepe, Engelmans njegras ; in 
Italian, loglio vivace. In Spanifh ballico, vallicoj in Portu- 
guefe, joyo vivace ; in Ruffian, pfehanez. 
How long ray-grafs may have been in cultivation, we 
are not able to afeertain. We may, however, venture to 
fix the introduction of it after the middle of the laft cen¬ 
tury. For not only Gerard in 1597, his republifher John- 
fon in 1633, and Parkinfon in 1640, give not the leaft 
hint of any ufe to which this grafs is applied; but none 
Vol. XIII. No. 386 . 
1 U M. 
of the writers on hufbandry before the'reftorafion, as 
fir Hugh Plat, Googe, Markham, fir Richard Wefton, 
Hartlib, Gabriel Plattes, Blith, or Yarranton, fay a word 
in its commendation, or even ififinuate that this, or any 
particular fpecies of grafs, properly fo called, was (own 
in laying down land. The firft mention made of i£ 
for cultivation is in Dr. Plot’s Oxfordfhire, printed 
in 1677. “They have lately fown, fays he, ray-grafs , 
or the gramen loliaccum, by which they improve any 
cold, four, clay-weeping, ground, for which it is beft; 
but good alfo for drier upland grounds, efpecially light 
ftony or fandy land, which is unfit for faindl foin. It 
was firft fown in the Chiltern parts of Oxfordfhire, 
and fince brought nearer Oxford by one Mr. Euftace, 
an ingenious hufbandman of Iflip, who, though at firft: 
laughed at, has fince been followed even by thofe very 
perlbns that fcorned his experiment; it having pre¬ 
cedence of all other grafles, in that it takes almoft in all 
forts of poor land, endures the drought of i'uromer beft, 
and in the fpring is the earlieft grafs of any, and cannot 
at that time be overftocked, its being kept down making 
it fweeter and better-beloved by cattle than any other 
grafs; nay fometimes they have been known to leave mea¬ 
dow-hay to feed on this; but of all other cattle it is beft 
for horfes, it being hard hay; and for fheep, if unfound, 
it having been known by experience to have worked 
good cures on them ; and in other refpeCts the beft winter 
grafs that grows.” Ray, in his Hiftory, (1688,) relates, 
that it is fown in a few places, and that it is excellent for 
fatting bullocks. In the third volume of the Oxford 
Hiftory of Plants by Morifon and Bobart, (1699,) it is 
faid, that the feeds are gathered and fown in (tiff and moift 
land; and that it is much efteemed under the name of 
ray-grafs, as food for fheep and other cattle. According 
to fltillingfleet, “it makes a molt excellent turf on found 
rich land, where it will remain. Many, he adds, ara 
tempted, by the facility of procuring the feed of this grafs,. 
to lay down grounds near their houfes, where they want 
to have a fine turf with it; for which purpofe, unlefs the 
foil be very rich, a worfe grafs cannot be fown, as it will 
certainly die off in a very few years entirely.” This gen¬ 
tleman thinks that ray-grafs does not feed good venifon 
and prefumes from hence that it is not proper for fheep, 
having always obferved that the fame kind of ground 
which yields good venifon, yields alfo good mutton. If 
it be the natural produce of very ftrong or wet lands, this 
is eafily accounted for. In fuch fituations it is by no 
means unprolific of leaves; but in dry upland paftures it 
runs much to ftalks or bents. It is not well adapted to 
form a lawn, its foliage b'eing of quick growth, and its 
flowering Items continually fhooting forth. Mr. Miller 
fays, that ray-grafs will fucceed better than any other fort 
in ftrong cold land, and is an earlier feed in the fpring; 
but that it is a very coarfe grafs, becoming very hard and 
wirey unlefs it be cut early, fo that few cattle care to eat 
it. He remarks, that it has few leaves, and runs much, 
to ftalk or bents, or, as it is called in fome counties, ben- 
net. When this grafs is fed, therefore, he recommends 
the bents to be mown off. He adds, that there is another 
fpecies (variety) called red darnel, which is of a worfe' 
nature than the other; the ftalks growing hard much 
looner, and having narrower leaves. It is very common 
in molt palture grounds ; for, as it comes early to flowei?, 
the feeds are generally ripe before the hay is cut. This 
variety is the produce chiefly of dry paftures, where ray- 
grafs certainly produces little elfe befides ftalks. 
How this fpecies came to be felefted originally for cul¬ 
tivation, we cannot fay. If it was not accident, it was 
perhaps becaufe it is Common, and rhe feeds eafily col- 
letted. 1 That it fhould now be the only fort of feed 
which is to be had in-any quantity in the (hops, is a dif- 
grace to us, fince the beft forts have been fo repeatedly 
pointed out by Mr. Curtis and others, and^premiums of¬ 
fered for collecting them, during l‘o many years, by the 
L Society 
