460 
EXTRACTS. 
The gentleman to whom we submitted the foregoing account and 
specimen is decidedly of opinion that the insect is the Athalia sped - 
arum of Leach and Fabricius; that their caterpillars are the favourite 
prey of ducks; and that a flock of these birds, driven leisurely over 
an infected field, would be the only practical means of removing the 
pest. 
Extracts.—' 11 Lolium or Darnel is a very common grass, and several 
species, as the arvensi, perenne, &c., have been recommended to be 
sown among other grasses on poor soils; they afford a bulky crop of 
hay, and, although much less nutritious than the florins and various 
others, they are more so than the fox-tail, cock’s-foot, dog’s-tail, and 
fescue grasses;—and it is not unimportant for agriculturists to be 
aware, that experiments have shown some of the grasses to contain two 
or three times as much nutritious matter as others. 
“ The bearded darnel is generally supposed to be the f Infelix lolium 
of Virgil, of which he speaks in no measured terms of condemnation. 
It is not a very common grass in Britain, but in warmer climates it is 
a noxious corn-weed, and, with the barren oat, overtops and chokes 
the wheat; so that Milne thinks it highly probable that the Greek 
word, rendered tares in the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, 
should be translated darnel, which would convey the meaning of the 
passage more aptly than tares, unless the strangle-tare (Ervam tetra - 
spermum ) be intended; for, of all corn-weeds, this is most annoying to 
a growing crop, though the seeds do not, or at least need not, appear 
in the sample, because they may be sifted out, which darnel cannot be. 
The same word is always rendered by French translators ivraie , from 
ivre, drunk. Our partiality for contractions has caused the corruption 
of the French ivraie into ray-grass—one of the names of darnel, 
although it properly applies to one species only, viz. the Lolium 
temulenium, which is said to possess intoxicating powers. Haller 
affirms that this species of lolium not only produces intoxication, as 
the trivial name implies, but that, if baked into bread, or fermented 
in ale, its administration is attended by very disagreeable effects ;—it 
produces headach, vertigo, &c., and the tongue exhibits a very strong 
trembling. By the Chinese laws (for this plant is found both in 
China and Japan), it is forbidden to be used in fermented liquors. 
Some of the intoxicating qualities of factitious beer are said to be owing 
to the admixture of darnel with malted barley. In the IC Medical and 
Physical Journal” there are placed on record several cases of poisoning 
by darnel in the human subject. In these, giddiness in the head, pain 
and swelling of the limbs, succeeded by abscess and gangrene, were the 
