[ ß*S ]
LOLIUM perenne.
Perennial Darnel, or Rye-grafs.
^ R d R D R I d Digynia.
G b n . C h a r . Cal. o f one hulk, fixed, many-flowered.
S p e c . C h a r . Flowers beardlefs. T h e little fpikes
comprefled, longer than the calyx,
S y n . Lolium perenne. Linn. Sp. P I . i z i . H u d f.F l.
A n. 55. With. Bot. A rr. 120. Relh. Cant. 52.
Sibth. Ox. $0. Leers Herb. 4 y. t. 12. f. 1.
Gramen loliaceum anguftiore folio et fpica. Ran
Syn. 395.
T h IS very common fpecies of grafs is well known to the
farmer by the name of Rye-grafs, Ray-grafs, or Crap. It?
agricultural merits were firft difcovered in Norfolk, and from
thence the feeds have been diftributed throughout the kingdom,
thofe who bought them little fiifpefting the plant was already
a weed in their own fields. Its chief ufe is for an early crop
of hay upon high or fandy lands. It makes a fine turf; but
though the roots are perennial, it doss not laft many years except
(according to Stillingfleet) the foil be very rich.
Root of a few^ fimple fibres. Stems a foot high, round,
fmooth, rigid, with fwelling purplilh joints. Leaves, dark
green ; ftipulse fhort and entire. Spike two-ranked and com-
prefied, the common ftalk zigzag. Hulks lanceolate and acute.
Antherae cloven at each end, purple. Stigmas feflile, downy
above. Germen roundifh. Seed linear.
The fpike is fometimes branched in an alternate manner, and
more frequently very much condenfed into a flat oval form.
It flowers in June.