170 



NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



FESTUCA LOLIACEA SLENDER-SPIK- 

 ED FESCUE. 



Stem erect, slender ; spikelets 

 acute, close pressed, rather 

 crowded, and from ten to twelve 

 in number. It grows in moist 

 meadows in small tufts, root per- 

 ennial. It is a nutritive grass, 

 and would form good pastures, 

 but it is too rare to be ranked 

 among those worth cultivating. 

 The fescue grasses are com- 

 mon in most meadows, and occu- 

 py shady as well as sunny places ; 

 among the most valuable and 

 common of the tribe, is the Festu- 

 ca pratensis. Its stem is round 

 and smooth, and from 2 to 3 feet 

 high, with creeping roots, and 

 surmounted by an erect branch- 

 ed panicle, and somewhat one- 

 sided ; spikelets linear, with from 

 live to ten flowers. The leaves 

 are long glossy green striated, 

 and have rough edges. 



Flowers in June and grows 

 in moist pastures. It ripens its 

 seeds early, and hence takes pos- 

 session of the ground before oth- 

 er grasses are matured. It is a 

 nutritive plant, growing in stiff 

 moist soils, and in shaded places. 

 Darby does not speak of it as a 

 southern grass. 

 BROMUS. 



Glumes two, many flowered, and shorter than the florets ; 

 florets imbricate in two rows ; lower palese cordate emargin- 

 ate, and sometimes armed with an awn below the summit ; 

 scales ovate smooth. 



