TRIANDRIA-^DIGYNIA. Festuca. U5 



Gramen bromoides panicuia sparsCi, locustis minoribus aristatis. 



Scheuchz. Agr. o\\. t.b.f. \9. 

 In woods and hedges that are rather moist. 

 /3. In more dry or barren ground. 

 At Saham, Norfolk. Mr. Crowe, On the banks of the Esk, near 



rortar. Hooker. 

 Perennial. July, August. 



Root tufted of many strong, partly woolly, fibres. Stems three or 

 four feet high, erect, smiple, leafy, round, striated, smooth, with 

 several joints. Leaves nearly upright, a foot long, lanceolate, 

 taper-pointed, dark peen, broad, flat, with a mid-rib which is 

 pale underneath, and several parallel, lateral, roughish ribs : the 

 mterstices striated 3 edges rough. Mea^/,. striated, smooth and 

 naked, not hairy 3 the upper ones longer than their leaves- 

 lower short. Stipula very short, brown or purplish, often jagged' 

 with an acute auricle at each side, clasping the stem. PaMe a 

 little drooping, twice compound, the primaiy branches 2 or 3 

 togetlier, the rest alternate, all angular and rough. Spikelets 

 alternate, drooping, ovate, not half an inch long without the 

 awns generally of 4 or 5 perfect >re^., with the rudiments of 

 another. Valves of the calyx lanceolate, keeled, pointed : the 

 outer narrow, sometimes awl-shaped, withoutany lateral ribs • in- 

 ner with 3 rough ribs, including the keel. Outer valve of the co- 

 rolla ovate-lanceolate, scarcely keeled, 5 -ribbed at the upper part, 

 smooth, acute, and often cloven, at the summit, the mid-rib ex- 

 tended into a capillary, rough, whitish, often wavy, aicn, half as 

 long again as the glume ; inner valve very thin, a little con- 

 cave, cloven at the point, its lateral ribs smooth to the naked 

 eye, but appearing under a magnifier finely downy, as in others 

 ot this genus, not coarsely fringed as in Brojnus. Nectaru 

 acutely cloven. Germe.i elliptic-oblong. Styles ^hori. Stigmas 

 feathery, oblong, scarcely compound. Seed oblong, dark brown 

 or purplish, covered with the unchanged corolla, but I believe 

 not combined with either glume. 

 /3 is a much more delicate, paler, and narrower-leaved grass, 

 about 2 feet high, with a smaller, more upright, panicle; the 

 outer va ve of the calyx sometimes a mere bristle. But thout^h 

 reckoned distinct by Linnaeus and Scheuchzer, it proves when 

 carefully examined, to be marked by no real specific character, 

 the number of Jlorets being undoubtedly variable. 



9. F. calamaria. Reed Fescue-grass. 



Panicle repeatedly compound, spreading, erect. Florets 



from two to five, oblong, cylindrical, keeled, angular, 



ponited ; niner valve folded in the middle. 

 F. calamaria. FLBr. 121. Engl. Dot. v. 14. t. 1005. Knapp t. 72 



Hook. Scot. 39. fVade PL Rar. Hib. 7. 



VOL. I. L 



