GENUS 98. 



GRASS FAMILY. 



271 



6. Festuca ovina L. Sheep's Fescue-grass. 

 Fig- 653. 



Festuca ovina L. Sp. PI. 73- 1753- 



Festuca ovina duriuscula Hack. Monog. Fest. Europe 89. 

 1882. 



Smooth, glabrous, culms 6'-2 tall, erect, tufted, 

 slender, rigid, simple ; no rootstocks. Sheaths usually 

 crowded at the base of the culm ; ligule auriculate, 

 short; blades filiform or setaceous, those of the culm 

 few, i '-3' long, erect, the basal ones numerous; pan- 

 icle ii'-6' long, often one-sided, narrow, its branches 

 short, usually erect or appressed ; spikelets 3-5-flow- 

 ered ; empty scales unequal, acute, the first i-nerved, 

 the second 3-nerved; flowering scales iJ"~3" long, 

 smooth, acute, short-awned. 



In fields and waste places, New Hampshire to North 

 Dakota, New Jersey, Kentucky and Iowa. Variable. Prob- 

 ably indigenous northward, but mostly naturalized from 

 Europe. Native also of Asia. Black-twitch-grass. Hard 

 Fescue. June-July. 



The so-called var. vivipara, a state of this grass with the scales wholly or partly transformed 

 into small leaves, is found on the mountains of New England and in arctic America. 



7. Festuca brachyphylla Schultes. Short-leaved Fescue-grass. Fig. 654. 



Festuca brevifolia R. Br. Append. Parry's Voy. Suppl. 



289. 1824. Not Muhl. 1817. 

 Festuca brachyphylla Schultes, Mant. 3: Addit. i, 



646. 1827. 

 Festuca ovina L. var. brevifolia S. Wats, in King's 



Rep. U. S. Geol. Expl. 4oth Paral. 5 : 389. 1871. 



Smooth and glabrous. Culms densely tufted, 

 6' or less tall, slender, erect, much exceeding the 

 short basal leaves ; sheaths coarsely striate ; ligule 

 a short scarious ring; blades very narrow, invo- 

 lute, at least when dry ; those on the culm \' or 

 less long, erect or ascending; panicle i' or less 

 long, nearly simple, its branches appressed ; spike- 

 lets 2-4-flowered, the empty scales acuminate, the 

 first i -nerved, the second 3-nerved; flowering 

 scales acute or acuminate, rough toward the 

 apex, 2"-2J" long, exclusive of the scabrous awn 

 which is i"-ii" long. 



Newfoundland to British Columbia, the higher 

 mountains of Vermont, and the Rocky Mountains to 

 Colorado. Summer. 



8. Festuca capillata Lam. Filiform Fescue- 

 grass. Fig. 655. 



Festuca capillata Lam. Fl. Franc. 3 : 598. 1778. 

 Festuca ovina capillata Hack. Bot. Centrb. 8 : 405. 1881. 



Densely tufted. Culms erect with a decumbent 

 base, 6'-i5' tall, slender, smooth and glaucous, shin- 

 ing; sheaths smooth, longer than the internodes, 

 confined to the base of the culm; ligule a short 

 membranous ring; blades filiform, smootfi or rough, 

 the basal ones from one-third to one-half as long as 

 the culm, the culm leaves i'-ii' long; panicle con- 

 tracted, \'-2' long, its branches erect, \' or less long; 

 spikelets 2"-2i" long, 4-5-flowered ; outer scales 

 empty, unequal, the first acuminate, the second acute; 

 flowering scales about ii" long, unawned, acute. 



Fields and roadsides, Newfoundland to New Jersey 

 and Michigan. Introduced from Europe. June-July. 



