GRAMINEA2. (GRASS FAMILY.) 599 
to the inclosed grain. Stamens mostly 3.—Flowers, and often 
the leaves, rather dry and harsh. (An ancient Latin name.) 
* Floicers bristle-pointed or aicned from the tip, racemose-contracted . 
1. F, tenclla, Willd. Panicle very simple and spike-like, 
somewhat one-sided (2'—3* long) \ spikelets 7—^-flowered ; aicns more 
or less shorter than the involute-awl-shaped pulea; leaves almost bristle- 
form. Q —Dry sterile soil, not rare. July.— Culms very slender, 
6'-12' high. 
2. F* ovina, L. (Sheep’s Fescue-Grass.) Panicle very 
simple, much contracted, partly one-sided (2'-3'long); spikelets of 
about 6 lanceolate-oblong flowers, bearing awns half their length or 
less; leaves involute-bristle-form , short, chiefly tufted at the base of 
the slender culm (6'- 15'high). 1J. — Fields, E. New England (in¬ 
troduced? rare) and northward : and the var. vivipara, with the 
spikelets partially converted into a leafy shoot, on the alpine summits 
of the White Mountains, New Hampshire. 
3. F. duriliscula, L. Panicle somewhat contracted and turn¬ 
ed to one side ; spikelets 5-6-flowered, rather larger than in the last, 
the cuhn (l2'-20'high) mostly larger and its leaves flat: otherwise 
nearly as in No. 2, of which in Europe it is now considered a variety. 
H. — Dry fields, near the coast, and northward : probably introduced. 
June. 
* * Flowers awnless , and pointless or merely mucronate , open-pan icled: 
grain commonly free. (Differing from Sclerochloa by the want of 
the scarious obtuse tip to the lower palea, &e.; from Poa also by its 
rounded back.) 
4. F. ClatiOl*, L. (Tall Fescue-Grass.) Panicle branched , 
loose , rather spreading ; spikelets crowded , 4 - 6-floicered (nearly £' 
long) ; lower palea either pointless or very short-pointed: culm 3? - 
5° high from a somewhat creeping rootstock ; leaves broadly linear. 
— Moist meadows and pastures : introduced. June. 
5. F. pratensis, Hudson. (Meadow Fescue-Grass.) Pan¬ 
icle simple , or sparingly branched ; spikelets 5 - 10-flowered ; lower pa¬ 
lea barely acute ; culm 2° -3? high, without a creeping base. 1J. — 
Fields and meadows, naturalized, common. June, July. — Probably 
a mere var. of the last, but deemed a more valuable grass. 
6. F. nutans, Willd. Panicle of several slender and spread¬ 
ing branches, mostly in pairs, drooping when old, rough, naked be¬ 
low, bearing near their extremity a few ovate 3 —5-flowered spikelets 
(£' long) on pretty long pedicels; flowers ovate-oblong, rather obtuse, 
pointless, close together, coriaceous, smooth, very obscurely 5-nerved. 
1J.—Rocky woods and copses. July. — Culm 2P-4° high, naked 
above; leaves broadly linear, taper-pointed, dark green, often rather 
hairy. 
