ˈray-grass
Also 7 rea, 8 rey-.
[f. ray n.7]
= rye-grass (now the usual form).
| 1677 Lond. Gaz. No. 1176/4 Pure and unmixt Trefoile Seed..freed and acquitted from all Rea, and other course Grass Seeds. 1677 Plot Oxfordsh. 154 They have lately sown Ray-grass or the Gramen Loliaceum, by which they improve any cold, sour, clay-weeping ground. 1763 Museum Rust. I. 224 Saintfoin receives great benefit from this manure, and so does clover, ray-grass, and trefoil. 1831 Sutherland Farm Rep. 74 in Lib. Usef. Kn., Husb. III, On soil of the second quality, one bushel and a half ray-grass. 1886 Britten & Holland Plant-n., Italian Ray Grass,..a commercial name for Lolium italicum. |