GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 31 



The subgenus Hesperochloa includes a single species Festuca 

 confinis Vasey, a stout tufted perennial with creeping rhizomes, firm 

 flat blades, and narrow panicles of awnless spikelets. 



The remaining species, all perennials, are placed in the subgenus 

 Eufestuca. Mountain bunch-grass (F. viridula Vasey) with nar- 

 row flat or loosely involute blades and awnless spikelets is common 

 in the subalpine meadows of the northwestern mountains where it 

 constitutes an important part of the forage. Festv)ca subulate Trin., 

 a common woodland species of the Northwestern States, has flat thin 

 blades and very open panicles of long-awned spikelets. Much re- 

 sembling this is F. sulmli flora Scribn., which is peculiar in having 

 a stipelike elongation at the base of the florets. An allied Califor- 

 nian species, F. elmeri Scribn. and Merr.^ias spikelets like F. subulata, 

 but the awn arises between the two minute teeth of the lemma. Fes- 

 tuca obtusa, Spreng. is an eastern woodland species with very loose 

 sparingly 'branched panicle and few awnless spikelets. The largest 

 species of the genus in the United States is F. calif omica Vasey, 

 found in dry woods of western California and Oregon. This grows 

 in large tufts, with culms as much as 5 feet tall, hard flat or loosely 

 involute blades, pilose on the collar, and large panicles. 



The type species, Festuca ovina, is the representative of a large 

 group of varieties or closely allied species in Europe. Festuca omna 

 itself is cultivated as a lawn or pasture grass under the name of 

 sheep's fescue. It is a tufted grass 6 to 18 inches tall with firm, short, 

 involute blades, crowded at the base of the slender culms, and narrow 

 panicles of short-awned spikelets. This grass is used in mixtures 

 for sterile or stony soil. Three allied European species are used in 

 the same way but especially in mixtures for lawns. These are F. 

 durmscula L., hard fescue (a species rare in America), with blades 

 about 1 mm. broad; F. heterophyUa~Lsim., with flat stem blades; and 

 F. capillata Lam., with very fine blades and awnless spikelets. Eed 

 fescue, F. rubra L. (fig. 6), differs in the loosely tufted culms with 

 decumbent usually red bases. This is native in both Europe and 

 America. Two species allied to F. ovina are native in the Western 

 States and are both important range grasses. These are F. idahoensis 

 Elmer (F. ingrata (Hack.) Kydb.), blue bunch-grass, with pale 

 narrow stiff harshly scabrous blades 6 to 15 inches long, and awned 

 spikelets, common from British Columbia to Colorado and Cali- 

 fornia ; and F. arizonica Vasey, Arizona fescue, with nearly awnless 

 spikelets, found in northern Arizona and southern Utah. 



The most important cultivated species of the genus is Festuca 

 elatior L.. meadow fescue (PI. II ; fig. 7) . This is a smooth perennial, 

 1 to 4 feet high, with flat blades and a narrow but rather loose panicle 

 1 to 8 inches long, the awnless spikelets about half an inch long. 

 Meadow fescue is cultivated for hay and pasture in the humid region, 



