TRIANDRIA— DIGYNIA. Festuca. 141 



few spikelets which are not viviparous. In those that are, the 

 lowermost florets are greatly elongated, and strongly ribbed, the 

 upper gradually transformed into leaves, so that each spikelet 

 becomes a bud ; for it is not the case with this, as in many other 

 viviparous grasses, that the seed merely vegetates in the husk, 

 like corn in a wet harvest. There are, in fact, no organs of im- 

 pregnation, nor any form or traces of a real seed. Botanists who 

 can examine the plant at leisure, in its wild state, may perhaps 

 meet with specimens bearing some perfect flowers, and the 

 corolla will then settle the question. I leave it to their decision. 

 Mr. Sinclair, who has well described the progress of this grass, 

 justly asserts that it remains entirely viviparous in a garden. 

 What he terms the germen, I presume to be the rudiment, or 

 heart, of the bud, or gemma, originating in the upper Jioret of 

 each spikelet. 

 The folded edges of the inner valve of the corolla, when it can be 

 found, are always downy. 



3. F. duriuscula. Hard Fescue-grass. 



Panicle unilateral, spreading. Florets longer than their 

 awns. Stem round. Upper leaves flat. Root fibrous. 



F. duriuscula. Linn. Sp. PL 108. WUld.v. 1.421. Fl.Br.\\5. Engl. 



Bot.v.7.t.47Q. Knappt.68. Hook. Scot.3S. Schrad. Germ.vA. 



328. Host Gram. v. 2. 59. £.83. Leers 33. t.S.f.2. Sincl. 31. 

 F. heterophylla. Haenke in Jacq. Coll. v. 2. 93. Willd. v. 1 . 42 1 . 

 F. nemorum. Leyss. in Act. Soc. Nat. Scrut. Hal. v. 1. 368. Roth 



Germ. v. 2. 129. Schrader, $ Davall. 

 F. n. 1438. Hall. Hist. v. 2. 214. Davall. 

 Gramen pratense, panicula duriore laxa, unam partem spectante. 



Raii Syn. 413. U9./.1. Scheuchz. Agr. 285. 



(5. Huds. 45. FK Br. 1 15. Schrad. Germ. v. 1. 328. 

 Festuca dumetorum. Linn. Sp. PI. 109. Willd. v. 1. 422. Fl. Dan. 

 t.7Q0. Sincl. 135. 



In pastures, dry meadows, waste ground, and thickets, common. 



Perennial. June, July. 



At least twice the size of either of the preceding. Root fibrous, 

 scarcely creeping, though sometimes throwing out short lateral 

 shoots. Stem 1| or 2 feet high, erect, leafy, round, striated, 

 smooth. Leaves roughish at the edges and keel j the lower ones 

 long, very slender, rigid, acute, compressed, striated ; upper 

 broader, and flat. Sheaths close, smooth. Stipula very short, 

 cloven. Panicle oblong, much spreading when in flower ; the 

 branches acutely angular, rough. Spikelets at first cylindrical, 

 but becoming flattened by the expansion of the glumes. Calyx 

 sharp-pointed. Florets keeled and considerably compressed, ge- 

 nerally smooth, from 4 to 6 or 7, the uppermost often imperfect ; 

 the outer valve tipped with a straight rough awn, scarcely half 



