216 GRAMINEAE. 
1. Festuca octoflora Walt. Slender Fescue-grass. (Fig. 497.) 
Festuca octoflora Walt. Fl. Car. 81. 1788. 
Festuca tenella Willd. Enum, 1: 113. 1809. 
Culms 4/-18/ tall, erect, from an annual root, 
slender, rigid, simple, smooth and glabrous. Sheaths 
usually shorter than the internodes; ligule very 
short; leaves 1%4’-3’ long, involute, bristle-form; 
raceme or simple panicle often one-sided, 1/-6/ in 
length, contracted, its branches erect, or rarely as- 
cending; spikelets 6-13-flowered, 3/’-5’’ long; empty 
scales acute, smooth, the first I-nerved, more than 
ha]f the length of the 3-nerved second one; flowering 
scales, exclusive of awns, 114’/-214’’ long, usually 
very scabrous, acuminate into an awn nearly as long 
as the body or shorter, or sometimes awnless; 
stamens 2. 
Dry sandy soil, Quebec to British Columbia, south to 
Florida, Texas and California. Leaves sometimes pubes- 
cent. June-Aug. 
2. Festuca Myutros [,. Rat’s-tail Fescue-grass. (Fig. 498.) 
Festuca Myuros \,. Sp. Pl. 74. 1753. 
Smooth, glabrous, culms 1°-2° tall, erect from an 
annual root, slender, simple. Sheaths often shorter 
than the internodes, the upper sometimes enclosing 
the base of the panicle; ligule %’’ long, truncate; 
leaves 2/5’ long, subulate, involute, erect; panicle 
usually one-sided, 4’-12’ in length, contracted, some- 
times curved, its branches appressed; spikelets 3-6- 
flowered; empty scales very unequal, acute, smooth, 
the first 1-nerved, less than half as long as the 3-nerved 
second one; flowering scales, exclusive of the awns, 
2/’-3/’ long, narrow, scabrous, acuminate into an awn 
much longer than the body; stamen 1. 
In waste places and fields, eastern Massachusetts to New 
Jersey and Florida. Also on the Pacific coast. Natural- 
ized from Europe. June-July. 
3. Festuca rubra L. Red Fescue-grass. (Fig. 499.) 
Festuca rubra I. Sp. Pl. 74. 1753. 
Culms 1%4°-2'%° tall, from running rootstocks, erect, 
simple, smooth and glabrous. Sheaths usually shorter 
than the internodes; ligule very short, truncate; basal 
leaves involute-filiform, 3/-6’ long; culm leaves 
shorter, erect, flat or involute in drying, minutely pu- 
bescent above; panicle 2’-5’ in length, sometimes red, 
open at flowering time, contracted in fruit; spikelets 
3-10-flowered, 4/’-6’’ long; lower scales acute, un- 
equal, the first 1-nerved, shorter than the 3-nerved 
second; flowering scales about 3’ long, obscurely 5- 
nerved, sometimes scabrous, bearing awns of less 
than their own length. 
Labrador to Alaska, south, especially on the mountains, 
to Tennessee and Colorado. Also in Europe and Asia. 
Summer. 
