TJic Country Gentleman s Magazine 



55 



GRASSES FOR PERMANENT PASTURE. 



No. I. — FESTUCA TRATENSIS* {Hiidson) Meadow Fescue-Grass. 



Synonyms — Granieiiloliaccuvi ; Splko divisa oi Morrison, l68o ; Bucdum pratcnse oiY2xxi€\}i; Schcdowrous 

 pratcnsis of Lindley ; Sweet Grass of the N. W. American Settlers. 



THE following is a botanical description 

 of the Festuca pratensis : — Root 

 perennial, fibrous \ leaves all broad, flat, acute 

 pointed, roughish on their upper sur- 

 faces, as well as on their terminal margins, 

 smooth underneath, usually four and some- 

 times five on the stem, the upper being always 

 much shorter than its smooth sheath ; stems 

 4 or 5 jointed, i8 to 30 inches in height, 

 hollow, round, smooth, striated, and fre- 

 quently more or less decumbent towards the 

 base; inflorescence in a simple panicle, which 

 is upright at first, but becomes gracefully bent 

 to one side after flowering, and having its 

 lower branches, as well as its 4 or 5 terminal 

 spikelets arising alternately on each side from 

 a roughish rachis or centre stem; spikelets 

 ovate-lanceolate in form, and containing five 

 or six florets set in a calyx composed of two 

 imequal, smooth, three-ribbed glumes or 

 chaffy scales, the lateral ribs of the smaller 

 being somewhat indented ; florets composed 

 each of two pale^ or seed scales, the outer of 

 which is longer than the calyx, five -ribbed, 

 membranous, and often bifid or forked at the 

 summit ; inner palea a narrow membranous 

 scale, about equal in length to the outer, fre- 

 quently bifid at the point, and having two 

 fringed marginal green ribs. Flowers about 

 the end of June or first week of July, and 

 ripens its seed in from five to six wrecks there- 

 after. 



This species belongs to the section known 

 as the broad-leaved Fescues, from the 

 root leaves being as broad or broader than 

 those of the stem ; a characteristic which, 

 taken with that of the awn or its rudimentary 

 basis (when either are present) arising from be- 

 hind the summit, instead of from the extremity 

 ■of the outer palea, as in the narrow root-leaved 



* From [the Celtic f^st, food or pasturage, and the 

 Latin pratcnsis, a meadow. 



species, induced Parnell, in his " Grasses of 

 Britain," to separate the former into a new 

 genus under the name of Bucetum. 



NATURAL DISTRIBUTION. 



Throughout Europe, from Italy to Lapland, 

 the northern parts of North America, and at 

 least in some districts of Northern Asia. In 

 Britain it is comparatively rare at altitudes 

 above 500 feet; although under favourable 

 circumstances, as regards soil and shelter, it 

 is occasionally found at from 600 to 800 feet, 

 and its natural abundant presence is always 

 indicative of superior pasturage, as well as of 

 rich substantial soil, capable of producing 

 excellent wheat and other agricultural crops. 

 Asa Gray, in his " Botany of the Northern 

 United States," describes it as common in 

 fields and meadows, but supposes it to have 

 been naturalised, — an opinion scarcely ad- 

 missible, seeing that it is indisputably a native 

 of British America, from the Adantic to the 

 Pacific Oceans. In Commander Richard C. 

 Mayne's "Four Years in British Columbia 

 and Vancouver's Island," he mentions F. 

 pratensis, under the name of " sweet grass," 

 as covering rich flats on the Eraser, Thomp- 

 son, and Nicola rivers, " of which cattle and 

 horses are so fond, and which has so wonder- 

 ful an efl"ect in fattening them. I have seen 

 horses on Vancouver's Island, where the same 

 grass grows, which had been turned out in 

 autumn, brought in in April in splendid condi- 

 tion, and as fresh as if they had been most 

 carefully treated all the time." 



QUALITIES AND USES. 



The Meadow Fescue is one of the earliest, 

 most productive, nutritious, and valuable of 

 native grasses; and being eagerly eaten by 

 cattle, horses, and sheep, both in its green 

 and dried state, it should be largely intro- 

 duced in mixtures for permanent meadows, 



