558 



CVII. GRAMINE.E. 



IFes ticca. 





creeping, the scions ending In erect shoots with distichous leaves. 

 F. rubra Z. : -E. B, t. 2056. F. duriuscula va7\ Parn. Gr. t. 60. 



a. Abundant in dry and elevated pastures. — j3. Pastures and 

 waste ground. — 7. Light sandy or rarely in wet places. i;, 

 6, 7. — Whole plant more or less glaucous, and having a purple tint 

 in the splkelets, — Root of a. much tufted and scarcely at all creepin 

 with numerous, mostly short, often curved leaves, which afford excell, 

 lent food for sheep in hilly situations; in j3. it is less tufted and shows 

 a greater tendency to creep ; while in 7., at least when growing in 

 sand, it is extensively creeping.* Culms in a, seldom above a foot 

 high, often only half that height, while in the tvvo other varieties 

 it is seldom so short as one foot, usually more, and sometimes up- 



Panicle of a, usually small and narrow, often 

 scarcely Ij inch long ; in ^. and 7. it varies from 1^^ to 4 inches long. 

 Glumes nearly glabrous, scarcely half the length of the lowermost 

 floret on the same side. Florets in all the varieties sometimes nearly 

 glabrous, sometimes pubescent upvvard or even hairy all over, termi- 

 nated by an awn which very rarely exceeds half the length of the 

 ^Z?/»2eZZa, often considerably shorter and sometimes obsolete : the two. 

 iirst varieties are frequently viviparous in mountainous situations. 

 After a careful reconsideration of these plants, we recur to the opinion, 

 given about 30 years ago, in the Flora Scotica, that F, rubra is not 

 distinct from F. duriuscula : the usual forms of F. duriuscula and F, 

 ovina present a considerable difference to the eye, but there is a defi- 

 ciency of characters : we therefore prefer uniting them, while men* 

 tioning all the alleged distinctive marks. 



wards of 2 feet high. 



** 



Root-haves flat^ hroader than those of the culm. Bristle or awn 

 (when present) arising from below the summit of the outer 

 glumtlla, Scliedonorus.^ 



f Liyule of the uppermost sheath pron. 



3-nerved> 



Outer glumella 



■ 



4. F. sylvdtica Vill. {Reed F.) ; panicle subsecund much 

 branched spreading nearly erect, spikelets of 3 — 5 acute awn- 

 less scabrous 3-nerved florets, outer leaves linear-lanceolate. 

 Poa PoUich : Parn. Gr. tt. 44, 100. F. Calamaria Sm. : E. B. 

 t. 1005. — (i. minor; leaves narrower, florets about 2, 

 <;idua J5, £. t. 2266. 



F. de- 



Mountain-woods, not uncommon, 

 with broad leaves. 



n. 



Cidms 2 — 3 feet high. 



. \ 



Glumes narrow, linear-lanceolate, very unequal, 



4 



1 "We have a series in this tribe in the structure of the root : first tenwfolia, 

 Avhich seems to have the least of a creeping rhizoma ; then ovina and duriuscula, 

 where it is very slender ; next rubra, of our hills and meadows, where it is stouter 

 and perhaps 2 or 3 inches long ; and lastly that (^f the sand-hills, where it is some- 

 times as many feet." Woods in Phytol. iii. p. 261. 



2 From (Tx^lov, near, and ego?, the exireinity; in allusion to the awn, not as 

 olten misprinted Schenodorus. though Pal. de Beauvois, the authority for the 

 genus, prints \t Schenodorus in his Index. Nees v. Esenbeck remarks that, in 

 the species o{ Fesiuca, the hypogynous scales are 2.toothed : in Schedonorus, 

 lanceolate and entire, and m ErcmuSy obovate and entire. 



