Order GRAMINE^. 



Genus, Fcstuca-; Sub-Order, Fcstucacece. 



3 FESTUCA DURIUSCULA, LINNJEUS. 



HARD FESCUE GRASS. 



(Plate LV., B.) 



FESTUCA DURIUSCULA, Linnaeus, Hook, fil., Fl. Tasm., II., 126. 

 FESTUCA DURIUSCULA, Linnaeus, Hook, fil., Fl. N.Z., I., 309. FESTUCA 

 DURIUSCULA, Linnaeus, Hook, fil., Handb. N.Z. FL, I., 341. 



A TALL, slender, densely tufted grass. Roots fibrous. Perennial. 

 Flowers December February. Culms, i 2 feet high, glabrous. 

 Leaves slender, involute, filiform, or short and setaceous ; Sheaths with 

 membraneous wings ; ligule very short. Panicle often unilateral, T 7 

 inches long, open or contracted, branches capillary, often flexuose, 

 lower 2 or 3-nate. Spikelets few, J \ inch long, 4 8 flowered. 

 Empty glumes unequal, acute, 3-nerved. Flowering glume ovate, 

 lanceolate, shortly bifid, with a central short stiff awn, scabrid on the 

 nerves. Palea nearly as long as the flowering glume, bifid at the top, 

 2-nerved. Scale acutely 2-fid and, in alpine forms, ciliate, ovary linear, 

 crowned with a small glutinous patch without hairs. Grain linear, 

 oblong, concave in front. DISTRIBUTION OF SPECIES : TEMPERATE 

 REGIONS OF BOTH HEMISPHERES. 



A very valuable grass, occuping a prominent place in all mountain pastures, 

 being productive in every variety of soil, and possessing a great capacity of 

 adaptation to both aridity and moisture. It is subject everywhere to much 

 variation, and several of the varieties are known by other names. This tendency 

 to vary, may also be observed with this species in New Zealand, sub-alpine 

 forms sometimes being more related to Festuca ovina than the present species ; 

 and it is \ 7 ery improbable that these varieties have been introduced. The only 

 structural change observed in these sub-alpine forms, being the presence of cilia 

 on the scales. This species is highly commended by authors as a pasture grass. 

 Mr. Sinclair observes of it, that " it is most prevalent on light rich soils, but it is 

 likewise always found in the chest natural pastures where the soil is more 

 retentive of moisture, and it is never absent from irrigated meadows that have 

 been properly formed. It springs rather early, and the produce is remarkably 



