GRASSES OF SCOTLAND. 107 



itself very well adapted for alternate husbandry-, but should be com- 

 bined with cock's-foot, rye-grass, and rough- stalked meadow-grass. 

 It is of greater value at the time of flowering than at the time the 

 seeds are ripe, as three to one. In the deep alluvial soils in Lincoln- 

 shire, this grass is not so prevalent as in the clay districts. In the 

 vale of Aylesbury it constitutes a considerable portion of the most 

 valuable and fattening pastures of that rich grazing district." 



I* is a frequent grass in Scotland, England, and Ireland : also a 

 native of Lapland, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Switzerland, 

 Italy, Russia, and the United States, Its limit of altitude is about 

 500 feet above the sea. 



Flowers in the last week of June, and ripens its seed about the 

 beginnino; of AuErust. 



71. BUCETUM ELATIL* * 



Tall Fescue- Grass. 



Specific Characters. — Awn short. Panicle compound (Plate 

 XLVL) 



Description. — It grows from three to five feet high. The root is 

 perennial, fibrous, somewhat creeping, forming large tufts. Stem 

 round, erect, smooth and striated ; bearing five or six leaves with 

 striated and mostly smooth sheaths : the upper sheath longer than its 

 leaf, crowned with a short ligule embracing the stem more on one 

 side than on the other. Joints five, smooth, darkish ; the first and 

 second rather remote. Leaves flattish, linear, acute ; the upper leaf 

 smaller than those below ; scabrous towards the point ; rough on the 

 inner surface, smooth on the lower half of the back. Inflorescence 

 compound panicled ; the first four or five spikelets arising immediately 

 from the rachis on short footstalks ; the lower ones on simple and 

 compound branches. Panicle large, spreading, inclining to one side ; 

 the rachis and branches rough. Spikelets of an ovate-lanceolate form, 

 of five or six slightly awned florets. Calyx of two unequal acute 

 glumes (Fig, 1), the inner one the larger, three-ribbed, roughish on 

 the upper part of the central rib ; the outer glume without lateral 



* Bvretum elatiu^ PamelL Festuca elatior, Linn. Smith, Hooker, Greville. Bchedo- 

 nor in eiatior. Lindlev. 



