GRASS FAMILY. 



273 



12. Festuca gigantea (L.) Vill. Great Fescue-grass. Fig. 659. 



^^?* 



GENUS 



Bromns gigantcns L. Sp. PI. 77- 



Festuca gigantea Vill. Hist. PI. Dauph. 2: no. 1787. 



Culms 2-4 tall, erect, simple, smooth and glabrous. 

 Sheaths usually overlapping; ligule i" long; blades 5'-! 

 long or more, bright green, 2" -6" wide, flat, rough ; panicle 

 7'-i2' in length, loose, narrow, the branches erect or as- 

 cending, the lower 2'-4' long; spikelets 3-7-flowered; empty 

 scales acuminate, smooth and glabrous, the first i-3-nerved, 

 shorter than the 3-5-nerved second ; flowering scales, ex- 

 clusive of awns, about 3" long, faintly 5-nerved, slightly 

 scabrous, minutely 2-toothed at the apex, bearing- an awn 

 6"-8" long. 



In waste places, Maine to southern New York. Adventive 

 from Europe. July-Aug. 



13. Festuca altaica Trin. Rough Fescue-grass. Fig. 660.' 



F. altaica Trin. in Ledeb. Fl. Alt. 1 : 109. 1829. 



Culms i-3 tall, erect, simple, usually rough below 

 the panicle. Sheaths overlapping, smooth; ligule a 

 ring of very short hairs ; blades rough, i" wide or 

 less, those of the culm i'~3' long, erect, the basal flat, 

 much longer and readily deciduous from the sheaths, 

 involute in drying; panicle 3' -4' in length, open, its 

 branches ascending or the lower widely spreading; 

 spikelets 3-5-flowered, about 4" long; empty scales 

 scarious, unequal, smooth, the first i-nerved, the sec- 

 ond longer, 3-nerved ; flowering scales about 3" long, 

 scabrous, often bearing a short awn i" long or less. 



\ Labrador to Alaska, south to Quebec, North Dakota and 

 British Columbia. Summer. Mistaken for Festuca 

 scabrclla Torr. in our first edition. 



14. Festuca confinis Vasey. Watson's Fes- 

 cue-grass. Fig. 661. 



Poa Kingii S. Wats. Dot. King's Exp. 387. 1871. 

 Festuca Kingii Scribn. Bull. U. S. Dep. Agr. Agrost. 5 ' 



36. 1897. Not F. Kingiana Endlich. 1855. 

 F. confinis Vasey, Bull. Torr. Club n : 126. 1884. 

 F. Watsoni Nash, in Britt. Man. 148. 1901. 



Culms tufted, erect, rigid, the base clothed with 

 dry leafless sheaths; sheaths smooth and glabrous; 

 leaves erect, stiff, smooth beneath, rough above, 10' 

 long or less, i"-2 /; wide, those on the culm much 

 shorter than those of the innovations ; panicle strict, 

 narrow, 4'-s' long, its branches erect; spikelets 

 usually 3-flowered, 3*"-4" long, the scales acute, the 

 flowering scales strongly hispidulous. 



Meadows, Montana to Nebraska, Colorado and Cali- 

 fornia. June and July. 



18 



