LOLIUM ARVENSE.{ Witherivg's Bot. Arrang.
Awnless Corn Rye-grass.
Spec. Char. Calyx longer than the spiketj florets with or without hair-like aristae;
straw smooth.,
Much similarity exists between this species and the preceding temulentum, and they inhabit the
same stations, but the floret valve of the arvense is destitute of an awn, and in lieu of an arista,
nature, as an effort, produces a short hair, or rudiment o f an arista: the straw in this species is
smooth. Lolium arvense is generally considered as a very scarce plant, but it is not uncommon
in S. Wales, where, undistinguished from the temulentum, both are called Hever, or Ever; the spike
o f this species often attains the length of fourteen inches, and the whole plant is of a paler green
colour than its associate.---------The deleterious effects of Lolium seem to have been known or suspected
from the' earliest ages, and mankind dreaded its malignancy. Ovid notes it. Virgil * twice
mentions ‘ cursed Lolium ’ as one of the certain attendants upon neglect and bad husbandry. The
modem Italians say of those who are afflicted with a depression of spirits, to occasion melancholy
insanity,
‘ A mangiato pane con loglio.’
He has eaten bread with lolium in it.
Whether we may attribute it to the superior state o f our agriculture, or that England is unfavourable
to its increase, or to both causes, is immaterial; but we know little of Lolium, and happily as little
o f its effects, and certainly nothing o f its fatal malignity, f
A, the Corolla with its hair-like arista.
B, a Fence from the lower spicula.
C, a Spiket matured.
* ‘ Infelix lolium, et sterilis dominantur avense.’ Eclog. i . Georg. 5.
f Under the head of this Lolium we cannothelp suggesting that theTares, mentioned in St. Matthew’s trospel as being
sown by an enemy among the corn, were possibly allusive to these Darnel. The supposition that has sometimes been
advanced, that theTares were of the genus Vicia, or Ervtim, will not bear a scrutiny, evident from the very expressions,
“ Lel b?th Srow “ *“ h" M “ “ >■*"». a”d | •!>' <!■“ of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first
the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather ye the wheat into my b a m b u t neither of the genera
above mentioned could be parted from the com, as they twist round the straw and are inseparable, and they might be
weeded from the wheat when young, by the obvious difference of the rising plants; but the similitude of the young Lolium
to the blades of com would render its destruction by that means impossible; and the very manner as recommended by the
lord of the harvest is adopted in those places where Darnel is abundant, as, previous to the sickle being put into the com,
the Hever is gathered into bundles and.bumed-------Our Saviour, in almost all his discounres with his disciples, illustrates
hts doctrines by beautiful and apposite allegories; parables were given to those whose eats were opened, alldrawnfrom
common occurrences, and well known transactions of life; and although the parable above alluded to was only allegorizing
the influence of S tan ; yet the circumstance of corn being injured by Tares musr have been a common and lamented fact,
universally familiar to the dwellers in Judea.