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The Book of Grasses 



Meadow Fescue. Tall Fescue. Festuca eldtior L. 



Perennial. Naturalized from Europe, 



Stem 2-5 ft. tall, erect, 

 Ligule very short. 

 Leaves 3'- 15' long, 2"- 

 4" wide, flat, often 

 rough. 



Panicle 4'- 12' long, nar- 

 row, usually nodding 

 at top, branches'spread- 

 ing in flower, erect 

 before and after blos- 

 soming. Spikelets 4- 



9-flowered, 4"-6" long, ..'?}} 



green or tinged with purple. Outer scales acute, 

 unequal; flowering scales acute or short-pointed; 

 palets nearly as long as flower-scales. Stamens 3, 

 anthers reddish purple or yellow. 



Meadows, fields, and waysides. June to August. 



Nova Scotia to Ontario and southward. 



THE BROME-GRASSES 



DOWNY BROME-GRASS, FRINGED BROME-GRASS, 

 CHESS, AND UPRIGHT CHESS 



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Many of the Brome-grasses, as emigrants 

 from Europe, have become weeds in this country, 

 and from May until August are found blooming 

 by waysides and in waste places, where the beau- 

 tiful panicles of large drooping spikelets should 

 be quickly recognized. 



Downy Brome-grass, the earliest species, is 

 common along railway embankments and by 

 dry roadsides and is resembled by closely related 

 species which have a more southern range. The 

 plant is a low, slender annual whose panicles of 

 awned, drooping spikelets resemble the heavier 

 heads of cultivated oats. The stems are reddish 

 near the nodes and soon turn to shining purple, 

 while the ripening flowering-head is tinged with 

 the same colour. In sandy locations the whole 

 plant dries in a few weeks, and, faded to a pale 



222 



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Fringed Brome-grass 

 Bromus cihaius 



