242 



BRITISH GRASSES. 



2. Pestuca elatior, Linn. Meadow Fescue. 



Boot perennial, creeping, tufted; stems erect, numerous, 

 cylindrical, smooth, furrowed 5 three to five feet high ; joints 

 about five, tinged with dark blackish-green ; leaves flat, 

 linear or rather broad, acute, the upper leaf the smallest, 

 rough on the inner surface ; ligule short ; sheaths smooth ; 

 panicle spreading or spike-like, very variable, leaning to one 

 side ; rachis rough ; spikelets containing from five to ten 

 florets, ovate-lanceolate, nearly an inch long ; outer glumes 

 unequal, the inner one three-ribbed, the outer only keeled ; 

 flowering glumes long, broad, roughish, five-ribbed, blunt 

 or toothed at the apex, awned ; awn very short, rough ; palea 

 large, acute, with a green rib along each edge. 



The Meadow Fescue selects moist meadow or pasture 



land when it is self-planted. 

 Rich Yorkshire meadows 

 bordering the hillsides, and 

 supplied with many a brook, 

 and an occasional swamp, 

 are favourite homes of this 

 grass ; and very graceful its 

 tall, bending, tapering pani- 

 cle looks, as it overtops the 

 Poas and Cynosurus, and 

 bends to the breeze as if 

 from courteous choice rather 

 than necessity. 



It is a very valuable agri- 

 cultural grass, praised by the 

 experienced Mr. Sinclair and 



the 



grass students who suc- 



ceeded him, and included by Messrs. Wheeler in nearly 

 every group of grasses recommended for land on the 



