GRASS TRIBE 83 
commonly called Capon’s-tail-grass. The Barren Fescue varies very much. 
Its height is from six to twelve inches, and its stem is more or less leafy ; it 
grows on dry pastures and walls. In its ordinary form its spikelets are 
something like those of the barren brome-grass, but erect and much smaller. 
The leaves are long and slender, like bristles. It flowers in June ; its florets 
have but one stamen, and in the form myuros the panicle is sometimes half a 
foot long. Hooker jils regards F. myuros as the type, and bromoides he 
classes as a sub-species under the name of JF’. sciuroides. The latter is widely 
distributed throughout Britain, but F. myuros has been recorded only from 
the Isle of Wight, Dorset, Norfolk and Suffolk. 
3. Sheep’s Fescue-grass (F. ovina).—Panicle close, somewhat turning 
one way; spikelets usually with awns half their length; leaves all bristle- 
hike. Perennial. This is a most variable grass, and consequently one which ° 
is exceedingly puzzling to a young botanist. In one form, vivipara, a grass 
about half a foot high, the spikelet is converted into a leafy shoot, and the 
grass is, in appearance, most unlike its ordinary condition; in another, 
tenuifolia, the leaves are much longer than usual; in rubra the rootstock 
frequently sends out runners, the suckers terminating in erect shoots ; but 
this mark does not appear, from Professor Buckman’s experiments, to be 
constant, for, though occurring on sand deposits, the root does not creep in 
clays; it yields a quantity of fine herbage, but grows in separate tufts, and 
does not, this botanist says, present any inclination to form matted turf. 
A well-marked variety, and one which is very unlike the ordinary form of 
Sheep’s Fescue, is that termed duriuscula, or Hard Fescue, which is common 
on dry hilly pastures, often growing to the height of two feet, with a large 
pyramidal panicle with straggling branches, and long and somewhat broader 
leaves than most forms. The Sheep’s Fescue-grass received its specific name 
from Linnzus, because so much relished by sheep, and he thought that these 
animals cared little for pastures in which it did not exist. It is too small a 
grass in its usual form to be very productive, but it grows abundantly on 
dry elevated heaths and downs, forming a large portion of the grass and fine 
turf of many a hillside. It affords a most pleasant and nutritive food to all 
kinds of herbivorous animals; and Gmelin says that the Tartars choose to 
fix, during the summer, in those places where there is the greatest plenty of 
this grass, because of its worth to their flocks and herds. The leaves are 
very numerous, more or less curved, apt to turn yellow in autumn, and 
sometimes becoming, on hills near the sea, of a bright orange tint. It is 
abundant on almost all our chalky downs, and its height is from three to 
nine inches. The latter variety, duriuscula, is usually more or less of a sea- 
green tint, and its panicle often purplish. This, and the common form, make 
excellent grasses for lawns, on account of their fine herbage ; and they do 
not often require mowing. The larger form is an early grass, and will thrive 
on almost any soil, though growing naturally mostly on those which are 
sandy ; and it resists drought in summer, and retains its verdure remarkably 
in winter. It is a most useful grass. Hooker regards the forms duriuscula 
and rubra as sufficiently distinct to be styled sub-species. 
4. Reed Fescue (F. sylvdtica).—Panicle erect, much branched ; spike- 
lets rough; glumes very unequal ; leaves narrowly lance-shaped, rough at 
5) 
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