[? f. LIME sb.1 with reference to the binding quality of the plant; the spelling is app. suggested by the mod.L. generic name.] The name for grasses of the genus Elymus, esp. E. arenarius, a grass which is planted on sand, that its roots may help to keep the sand in its place.

1

1776.  Withering, Bot. Arrangement Veg., I. 64. Lymegrass. Elymus.

2

1787.  trans. Linnæus’ Fam. Plants, I. 52.

3

1854.  S. Thomson, Wild Fl., III. (ed. 4), 299. The lyme grass (Elymus), by binding the sands … with its roots, assists in the resistance to the encroachments of the sea.

4

  b.  attrib. in the name of a moth.

5

1869.  E. Newman, Brit. Moths, 275. The Lyme Grass (Tapinostola Elymi).

6