RYE-GRASS, Lolium, a genus of grasses, having a two-rowed, flatly-compressed spike, the spikelets appressed edgewise to the rachis. COMMON RYE-GICASS, Or PERENNIAL RYE-GRASS (L. perenne), the ray-grass of the older English authors, is frequent on way sides, and in meadows and pastures, in Britain and on the continent of Europe. The spikelets are much longer than their solitary external glume, 6 to 8 flowered; the florets awnless or nearly so; the culin flattened, from 1 ft. to 3 ft. high; the root producing leafy barren shoots, which add much to the agricultural value of the grass. This grass is highly valued for forage and hay, and is more extensively sown for these uses than any other grass, not only in Britain, but on the continent of Europe and in North America. It grows well even on very poor soils. The common perennial rye-grass is the kind most generally cultivated. A kind called annual rye-grass—not really an annual plant, although useful only for one year—is sometimes cultivated; but is in almost every respect inferior.—ITALIAN RYE-GRASS (L. Italicum, or L. maltiflorum, or L. Bovehla num), a
native of the south of Europe, is much esteemed as a, forage and hay grass. • In many soils and situations in Britain it succeeds extremely well, and is remarkable for its ver dure and luxuriance in early spring. It is preferred by cattle to the common rye-grass. The young leaves are folded lip, whilst those of the common rye-grass are rolled torrether. —There are many varieties of rye-grass. It is nowhere so much valued or cultivated as in Britain. It was cultivated in England before the cad of the 17th century. Italian rye-grass was introduced into Britain in 1831 by Mr. Thomson of Banehory, and Messrs. Lawson & Son of Edinburgh. Rye-grass is generally sown along with some kind of corn, and vegetating for the first year among the corn, appears in the second year as the proper crop of th_e_field.