THE SELECTION OF GRASSES AND CLOVEES. 43 



describes Festuca elatior as found growing wild in England : 

 ' Festuca elatior is a tall, coarse grass, with stems reaching four 

 or five feet in height, and leaves one to two feet long by a 

 quarter to half an inch broad.' 



The plate prepared for this work is from a drawing of a 

 portion of a plant raised from seed of the foreign Festuca 

 arunclinncea sown in light garden soil. It wdll be seen that 

 the plant is very strong and far more robust than Festuca 

 'pratensis grown alongside, and falls little sliort of tlie size which 

 Mr. Baker describes the plant to attain when growing wild. 

 I have adopted the distinctive name of Festuca elatior fertilis, 

 given to the foreign seed-bearing variety of elatior by Sinclair to 

 distinguish it from the indigenous variety called by him Festuca 

 elatior sterilis. The reader must decide for himself how far such 

 a plant would suit his particular purpose. 



I may add that Festuca elatior, whether produced by the 

 planting of the divided roots of the indigenous variety, or as 

 the result of sowing seed of the continental form — Festuca arun- 

 dinacea — equally maintains the characteristic creeping habit of 

 the root which is one distinctive feature as compared with Festuca 

 pratensis Huclsoni. 



The botanical description and analysis are given at page 14-t, 

 facing an illustration. 



Festuca pratensis— var. loliacea {Darnel-like Fescue). — 

 This grass is the form which Festuca pratensis assumes in certain 

 alluvial districts. Professor Buckman, in his ' Natural History 

 of British Meadow ^nd Pasture Grasses,' says : ' Loliacea is not 

 only found, but is constant and a most valuable grass for hay 

 or pasture in meadows by the side of rivers, especially where 

 sidjject to Hoods, as the I sis at Oxford, or irrigated meadows 

 on the banks of the Churn at Cirencester.' Seed saved from 

 ])ure loliacea plants sown in the Cirencester botanical garden 

 brought the true spicate-liowered variety, yet in three years the 

 plants changed to a panicled Fescue indistinguishable from true 



