Lolium
(the old Latin name, used by Virgil and Pliny). ORD. Gramineae. A widely-dispersed genus of grasses. Upwards of twenty species have been described; these may probably (according to Bentham and Hooker) be reduced to two or three. They are of no value for horticultural purposes. The "tares" of Scripture are supposed to refer to the Darnel, L. temulentum. L. italicum, the Italian Rye Grass of agriculturists, is one of the numerous cultivated annual or biennial forms (not known in a wild state) of the common British L. perenne.