112 HORTUS ORAMINEUS WOBURN FN SIS. 



From the above details, it appears that this species of fes- 

 cue is much superior to ray-grass in point of produce. This 

 grass likewise springs earlier than the ray-grass, and im- 

 proves by age, which is not the case with common ray-grass, 

 as it decreases in value, with respect to produce and early 

 growth, after the fourth year of its being sown, while the 

 darnel-like fescue improves in these properties after that pe- 

 riod of growth. Unfortunately, however, this grass does not 

 perfect its seed, the flowers generally proving abortive ; 

 which renders its cultivation, or rather propagation, incon- 

 venient and expensive. By parting the roots, and trans- 

 planting them, it might readily be propagated ; but its 

 merits hardly warrant the practice. In rich meadows this 

 grass is very common, particularly where the land is periodi- 

 cally overflown. In a piece of meadow ground on the banks 

 of the river Trent, near Nottingham, I found this grass to 

 constitute the principal herbage. 



It flowers in the last week of June, and ripens the seed (if 

 any) in the third week of July. 



FESTUCA glabra, var. Smooth Fescue. 



Specific character : Panicle branched, upright, compact ; 

 spikelets spear-shaped, four to six-flowered, smooth, 

 awned. Root fibrous. 



Obs. — This is nearly allied to \hQ festuca duiiuscula 2inA 

 Jestuca rubra; it differs in having the awns longer, pa- 

 nicle branches and spikelets smoother; spikelets shining, 

 root scarcely creeping, root-leaves much longer. This 

 is, according to Sir James Edward Smith, a variety of 

 the Jestuca rubra. To the agriculturist, the distinction, 

 creeping root, is sufficient to guide him in this instance, 

 as the varieties of the creeping-rooted species are all to 

 be rejected as less desirable for cultivation ; arid among 

 the fibrous-rooted varieties of the festuca duriuscula, 

 there is not so great a difference in their comparative 

 value, as to render the adoption of one for the other of 

 so much importance as in many other instances, where 

 the distinctions are equally minute. Native of Britain, 

 Perennial. 



