74 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 
SHEEP’S FESCUE (Festuca ovina L.) 
Seed sElace 26 eee Oe 
Botanical description: Sheep's Fescue is perennial, forming 
dense tufts. The stems are numerous and slender, more or less 
angular, and from eight to twenty-four inches high. They are sur- 
rounded at their base with numerous secondary shoots, arising from 
buds within the persisting sheaths of old root leaves. The shoots 
appear from the mouth of the sheaths, not from their base, as in 
Red Fescue. For this reason the sheaths are not cut into strips, as in 
Red Fescue, but are entire, except in their upper part, and the base 
of the stems is not surrounded by tattered scales and strips. The 
leaves are very narrow and generally pale green, those of the basal 
shoots three to four inches long, those of the stem only about an 
inch. They are rolled up in the bud and persist in this condition 
even when fully developed. This is the reason why the leaves of 
Sheep’s Fescue always have a bristly appearance. The flowers are 
in a one-sided panicle, one to four inches long. The branches of the 
panicle spread during flowering but later become erect so as to give 
it the appearance of a narrow spike. ‘The spikelets are green, often 
with a violet tint. Each spikelet contains three or four flowers 
and each flower is enclosed within two glumes. The outer scale 
carries a short awn at its top. 
Geographical distribution: Sheep’s Fescue is indigenous to 
the Old World, its range extending from England to Japan and from 
Spitzbergen and Iceland to North Africa and the Himalayas. It is 
native to Canada and some parts of the United States: many of the 
cultivated forms, however, have been introduced from Europe where 
it has been grown since about 1820. 
Habitat: It grows naturally in any dry locality—in dry pas- 
tures and sandy fields, on rocks, etc., from the seashore to the Alpine 
region of the mountains. In Europe it is found eight thousand feet 
above sea level. 
Cultural conditions: Sheep’s Fescue flourishes on dry and 
sterile ground where most other grasses cannot get a foothold or, if 
established, perish from drought and lack of nourishment. It 
endures practically all the hardships of nature without being seriously 
damaged and recovers quickly after long periods of suffering. Lack 
of moisture brings it to a standstill; severe drought may make its 
