I.—The seed-fungus ofLolium temulentum, L., the darnel

Abstract

It has long been known that the grains of the Darnel contain a poisonous body (Lolium), which can be extracted by ether. This substance has marked toxic action on rabbits and certain carnivorous animals, and is said to induce vomiting and other unpleasant symptoms in man, but to affect pigs, cattle, and geese but little, or not at all. In 18981 attention was drawn to the fact that a large percentage (80-100 per cent.) of the grains of this grass contain a definite fungus-mycelium, always situated in a definite layer of the seed,i. e., in the remains of the nucellus, just outside the aleurone-layer of the endosperm.