FES 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



FEU 



561 



nicle contracted; spikelets linear; calix longer than the flos- 

 cules ; root annual ; leaves bearded at the base ; root-leaves 

 collected into a tuft; culms filiform, narrow, of a finger's 

 length. According to Cavanilles, who observed it near Ma- 

 drid, a short fibrous root produces slender culms from four 

 to six inches in height, somewhat prostrate at the base, but 

 from the first joint upright; joints purple; valves of the 

 corolla awnless, the outer ovate, striated, white, and scariose 

 at the tip, including the inner; the genitals so minute as not 

 to be visible to the naked eye. Native of Spain, where it 

 flowers in May, and here in June and July. 



19. Festuca Misera. Panicle condensed ; glumes awned, 

 scabrous; culm kneed, broken ; leaves ensiform, smooth, a 

 finger's length ; panicle resembling a spike, mostly pointing 

 one way, smooth, a finger's length; calicine glumes contain- 

 ing few flowers. Native of Japan. 



20. Festuca Spinosa ; Thorny -branched Fescue Grass. Be- 

 coming shrubby : branches and branchlets thorny; pedicels 

 prickly; culms perennial, the size of a pigeon's quill feather, 

 solid, proliferous. The branches crowded, upright, simple, 

 thorny at the end ; leaves with dilated sheaths, ending in an 

 awl-shaped, pungent, very short leaf; flowers distich. 

 Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



21. Festuca Uniglumis; Sen Fescue Grass. Panicle al- 

 most simple, condensed, directed one way, awned ; calix one- 

 valved ; floscules distant; root annual; culms many, from 

 six inches to a foot in height, oblique, round, smooth, some- 

 what branched ; leaves petioled, somewhat involute, sharp, 

 naked, much shorter than the petiole, which is sheathing, 

 ventricose, and naked. Native of the sea-coast, where it is 

 found in loose sand, flowering in May and June. 



22. Festuca Cambrica; Welsh Fescue Grass. Panicle 

 directed one way, oblong, upright, branched ; spikelets 

 awned, smooth; leaves flatfish, naked; root perennial; 

 culm about a foot in height, oblique, round, leafy, smooth, 

 having two or three joints; root-leaves somewhat erect, ensi- 

 form, sharpish, channelled ; stem-leaves two or three, pe- 

 tioled, sharpish, nerved. It flowers in July and August, and 



i grows on the highest mountains about Llanberis, in Wales. 



23. Festuca Indica ; Indian Fescue Grass. Panicle con- 

 tracted, upright; spikelets compressed, somewhat awned, 

 with about six flowers. This species has the appearance of 

 a Poa; culms three feet high and more, the thickness of a 

 pigeon's quill, streaked, leafy. It is distinguished at a dis- 

 tance by its bluish-green colour; one half of the panicle 

 flowers and expands, contracting again, whilst the other half 

 flowers. Native of Tranquebar, in the East Indies, where it 

 is found in the Rice-grounds, with erect culms in flooded, 

 and decumbent culms in dry lands. 



24. Festuca Scabra ; Rugged-flowered Fescue Grass. Pa- 

 nicle directed the same way, squeezed close, erect; spikelets 

 compressed, six-flowered ; florets rugged. This grass is a 

 foot and a half high or more, with a round, smooth, striated 

 culm, and involuted leaves; spikelets lanceolate; calicine 

 glumes smooth; outer valves of the corolla rugged, acute, 

 villose, when viewed by a magnifier. Native of the Cape. 



25. Festuca Pungens. Spike glomerate, ovate ; spikelets 

 six-flowered, columnar, lanuginose; leaves involute, rigid; 

 culm creeping; branches erect, divided at top, commonly 

 into four divaricated branchlets, a span long, and the thick- 

 ness of a pigeon's quill ; the internodes an inch in length ; 

 leaves alternate, in two rows, spreading very much, pungent, 

 smooth, very finely streaked ; sheaths twice as long as the 

 joints, covering the culm, broader than the leaves, ciliate, 

 bearded at the throat on each side, without any ligule or 

 strap; spike compound, sessile, terminating. 



vou i. 47. 



26. Festuca Loliacea ; Darnel Fescue Grass. Spiked : 

 spikelets alternate, sessile, compressed, awnless. In defer- 

 ence to the judgment of Mr. Curtis, who has bestowed so 

 much laudable attention on this useful tribe of grasses, the 

 Darnel Fescue Grass is here given to a distinct species, 

 though Mr. Hudson regarded it as a variety of the Fluitans, 

 and others of the Pratensis. In root-stalk, leaves, and habit, 

 it comes so near Lolium perenne, or Common Kay Grass, as 

 scarcely to be distinguished from it; but it is usually higher 

 by about one-third ; the flowers in general grow in a simple 

 spike, from eight inches to a foot in length, bending a little 

 towards the top; the spikelets are sessile, nearly an inch 

 long, diverging from, and for the most part placed obliquely 

 to, the rachis, sometimes on peduncles of different lengths, 

 the lowermost about an inch long, nearly round, flattened a 

 little on the sides, running out to a point, the uppermost 

 shorter and somewhat broader, containing from ten to fifteen 

 flowers; calicine valves unequal in size, the innermost fre- 

 quently small, lateral, and sometimes wanting. It abounds 

 in moist fertile meadows, and flowers about the same time 

 with the Pratensis. It is a hardy perennial, of very quick 

 growth, producing a crop somewhat similar to Ray Grass, 

 but larger, and succeeding best in a moist soil ; it is, how- 

 ever, harsh and stalky. This and the eighth species (Elatior) 

 do not seem to produce seeds, at least in a state of cultiva- 

 tion : may not this circumstance arise from their running so 

 much at the root ? 



Feverfew. See Matricaria. 



Fever Root. See Triostium. 



Feuillea; a genus of the class Dioecta, order Pentandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix: perianth bell- 

 , shaped, one-leafed, half five-cleft, rounded at bottom, spread- 

 ing at top. Corolla: one-petalled, wheel-shaped; border 

 half five-cleft : divisions convex, rounded; navel closed with 

 a double little star, respecting the sun's motion, the rays 

 alternately longer and shorter. Stamina : filamenta five, 

 subulate; antherse twin, roundish; nectary consists of five 

 compressed threads bent in, and alternate with the stamina. 

 Female. Calix: perianth as in the male, but with a germen 

 at the base. Corolla: as in the male; the star of the navel is 

 formed of five heart-shaped plates. Pistil: germen inferior; 

 styles three or five, filiform; stigmas heart-shaped. Peri- 

 carp : berry, or rather pome, very large, fleshy, with a hard 

 skin, ovate, obtuse, surrounded with the calix. Seeds: com- 

 pressed, orbicular nuts. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Male. 

 Calix: five-cleft. Corolla: five-cleft. Stamina: five. Nec- 

 tary : five converging filamenta. Female. Calix: five-cleft. 



Styles: three. Pome: hard, three-celled, coriicose. The 



species are, 



1. Feuillea Trilobata. Leaves lobed, dotted underneath ; 

 stem angular, the thickness of a thread : at the axils of the 

 leaves are tendrils and bulbs. Native of the East Indies. 



2. Feuillea Cordifolia. Leaves heart-shaped, angular, 

 petioled, alternate; stem suffrutescent at bottom, divided at 

 top, with herbaceous branches, climbing frequently to the 

 tops of trees, roundish, and very smooth ; flowers racemed, 

 dusky yellow; the fruit is a globular, corticose, hard, many- 

 seeded pome; the nuts are orbicular, compressed, rugged, 

 and ferruginous, enclosing a very white kernel : the whole 

 plant is very bitter. There is a remarkable analogy between 

 the fruit of this plant and that of the Faba lynntii. It is 

 frequent in the inland parts of Jamaica, and is generally 

 found climbing among the tallest trees in the woods: the 

 seeds are very oily, and often burnt by the negroes instead 

 of candles. The kernels are extremely bitter, and commonly 

 infused in rum for the use of the negroes : a small quantity 



7 D 



