Grasses for Permanent Pasture 



59 



;No. 2.— FESTUCA ELATIOR* {LinneB2is)—i:2\\ Fescue-Grass. 



Synonyms— (7r<7;«.7/ pratensc majus of Buxbaum, 1728; Gramen paniculatum elatiiis of Vaillant, 1747; 

 Bronuis littorais of Willdenow ; Buceium elatiits of Parnell ; Festuca aritndinacea of Schrader and others ; 

 Schcdonorus datior of Lindley ; Reed Fescue-Grass. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Some botanical authors, among whom was 

 the celebrated Linnaeus, have failed in detect- 

 ing proper specific characters for distinguish- 

 ing between this and the Meadow Fescue 

 (page55),and so have included themunderone 

 name. For agricultural purposes, however, they 

 are, under all circumstances, sufficiendy as well 

 as permanently different. Both are perennial 

 and fibrous-rooted, but F. elatior is readily 

 distinguished by its more tufted growth, the 

 much greater size of all its parts, and the 

 consequently greatly-increased bulkand weight 

 of its produce, its height being from 4 to 5 feet 

 on ordinary soils, and from 5 to 6 feet when 

 grown on those of a very rich, strong, and 

 superior description; stems fine-jointed, of 

 strong upright growth, terminated with large 

 simple and compound-branched panicles, 

 which are somewhat bent or drooping in their 

 first and later stages, but upright when in 

 flower. Flowers in the middle of July, and 

 ripens its seeds in about five weeks afterwards ; 

 it is consequently ten days to a fortnight later 

 than F. pratensis. 



NATURAL DISTRIBUTION. 



The Festuca elatior seems co-extensive with 

 the F. pratensis, in its geographical distri- 

 bution; but in Britain it has a somewhat 

 less range of altitudes, seldom extending 

 to more than 500 feet above the level of 

 the sea; and it is most frequently found 

 in moist rich soils, by sides of rivers, streams, 

 and other places where the water is not stag- 

 nant nor the ground too thickly overshaded. 

 As the term " tall " is occasionally prefixed 

 to the sweet-grass of British N.-W. America 

 (F. pratensis), it is probable that the colonists 

 may include this along with that species. 



* From the Celtic fcst^ food 01 pasturage, and the 

 Latin datior, tall or lofty. 



QUALITIES AND USES. 



The strong, coarse, and somewhat tufted 

 growth of the F. elatior renders it unsuitable 

 for ornamental pastures, and its not attaining 

 to full growth till the second year is an objec- 

 tion to its being grown in alternate husbandry 

 rotations, unless when the grass crop is in- 

 tended to remain over two years; but its 

 early as well as continuous growth, and the 

 immense bulk of its produce, which, notwith- 

 standing its seeming coarseness, is greedily 

 eaten, both green and in hay, by live stock, 

 renders it one of the most valuable grasses for 

 permanent meadow and pasture lands, espe- 

 cially where the soil is moist and strong in 

 texture, including irrigated grounds as well as 

 places which are deficient in drainage outfall ; 

 and it is admirably adapted for cover by the 

 sides of lakes, rivers, streamlets, clayey or 

 alluvial sea-shores, and in open woodlands. 



The Tall Fescue does not appear to have 

 been specially recommended for cultivation 

 prior to the pubhcation of the "Hortus Grami- 

 neus Wobumensis " in 1824, although there 

 is strong presumptive evidence that early ex- 

 perimenters may have associated it with F. 

 pratensis under the name of Meadow Fescue. 

 Thus, in the " Letters and Papers of the Bath 

 Society " we find G. Swayne, of Pucklechurch, 

 in a letter dated September 15, 178 1, describ- 

 ing the Meadow Fescue (of which he had sent 

 seeds, along with those of ten other com- 

 mended sorts, to that Society) as being "rather 

 a coarse grass, found universally in meadows 

 and rich pastures " — a characteristic scarcely 

 applicable to the true F. pratensis, which in 

 coarseness of appearance scarcely surpasses 

 the common rye-grass. In the Woburn grass 

 garden, Mr Sinclair experimented with two 

 varieties of F. elatior — viz., the barren and 

 the fertile seeded. These presented no great 

 disparity in the weight of their produce ; but 



