140 TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Festuca. 



G. loliaceum, foliolis brevibus junceis, minus. Mom. v. 3. 1S2. 

 sect. 8. t.3.f.\3. 



In dry open pastures, very common. 



Perennial. June. 



Root of numerous, long, capillary, smooth, blackish fibres. Stems 

 from 6 to 12 inches high, erect, slender, rather rigid, smooth ; 

 leafy below ; square in the upper part. Leaves chiefly radical, 

 very numerous, composing dense tufts, linear, acute, folded, or 

 involute, so as to be quite bristle-shaped, or capillary, roughish, 

 of a dull, sometimes glaucous, green. Sheaths angular, or fur- 

 rowed. Stipula very short ; attended at each side with more or 

 less of a polished tubercle at the top of the sheath, like a knot. 

 Panicle small, erect, slightly branched. Florets 4 or 5, nearly 

 cylindrical, acute, or awned, the keel scarcely prominent} the 

 upper part roughish with minute tubercles ; their inner valve 

 smooth at the ribs, or edges. The var. /3 has a more purple 

 pa?iicle than usual ; thejlorets in $ have no awns, y is remarkable 

 for a very glaucous hue in the herbage and glumes, which is un- 

 changed by many years' culture. But several circumstances have 

 of late convinced me, that such a hue will not always, as I once 

 thought, afford a specific character, and I concur with my friend 

 Professor Hooker in abolishing this as a species. 



2. F. vivipara. Viviparous Fescue-grass. 



Panicle unilateral, rather close. Florets compressed, keeled, 

 awnless, somewhat downy, as well as the edges of their 

 inner valve, and the calyx. Stem square. Leaves folded, 

 bristle-shaped, smooth. 



F. vivipara. Fl. Br. 114. Engl. Bot. v. 19. t. 1355. Knappt.67. 



Sincl. \3\. Don H. Brit. 154. 

 F. ovina /3, Linn. Sp. PL 108. Willd. v. 1. 419. Hook. Scot. 38. 



F. ovina y. Schrad. Genu. v. 1 . 320. 



Gramen sparteum montanum, spica foliacea graminea, majus et 

 minus. Raii Syn. 410. t. 22. f. 1 . 



G. paniculatum sparteum alpinum, panicula angusta, spadiceo- 

 viridi, proliferum. Scheuchz. Agr. 213. Prodr. 21. t. 1. 



On the tops of the loftiest mountains. 



On Ingleborough, Skiddaw, Snowdon, and most of the Scottish 

 mountains. 



Perennial. July. 



The root, leaves, and general habit, nearly agree with the last, of 

 which most botanists have esteemed this plant a variety. Though, 

 of course, aware of the strange alterations which take place in 

 viviparous grasses, 1 have been induced to make a species of this, 

 on account of the diversity of shape in the outer valve of each 

 floret, which is not cylindrical, but ovate, compressed and keeled, 

 as well as all over downy. These characters are seen in the very 



