89 

 Festuca, Linn. 



Spikelets three to many flowered, variously panicled, pedicellate, 

 rhachis of the spikelets not hairy ; outer glumes unequal, shorter 

 than the flowers, the lower one nerved, and the upper three nerved, 

 narrow, keeled, acute; flowering glumes membranaceous, charta- 

 ceous, or sub-coriaceous, narrow, rounded on the back (not keeled,) 

 more or less distinctly three to five nerved, acute or tapering into a 

 straight awn, rarely obtusish; palet narrow, flat, prominently two- 

 nerved or two keeled. 



1. F. amethystina, Linn. California and Oregon. 



2. F. confinis, Vasey. Rocky Mountains, Wyoming, and Colorado. 



3. F. dasyclada, Hackel. Rocky Mountains. (No. 93 Parry, 1875.) 



4. F. duriuscnla, Linn. Atlantic coast to Rocky Mountains. 



5. F. elatior, Linn. (F. pratensis, Linn.) Meadow Fescue grass. 



Tall Fescue, Randall grass. Introduced and cultivated. 



A parennial grass, growing from 2 to 4 feet high, with flat, 

 broadish leaves about a foot long. The panicle is somewhat one- 

 sided, loose, and spreading when in flower, contracted after flower- 

 ing, from 6 to 10 inches long, the branches 1 to 2 inches long, erect, 

 mostly in pairs below, single above, subdivided ; the spikelets are 

 lanceolate or linear, about half an inch long, Ave to ten flowered. 

 The outer glumes are one and three nerved, shorter than the flowers ; 

 the flowering glumes are lanceolate, about three lines long, firm in 

 texture, five-nerved, scarious at the margin, acute, and sometimes 

 with a short but distinct awn at the apex. This is an introduced 

 species, now frequently met with in meadows ; it is one of the 

 standard meadow grasses of Europe. Cattle are said to be very 

 fond of it, both green and as hay. There is a smaller form or va- 

 riety which is the variety pratensis or Festuca pratensis, Hudson. 



Professor Killebrew, of Tennessee, writes of this grass as follows : 



This grass has received some attention in different parts of the State, and has 

 met with a warm reception from those testing it. It ripens its seed long before any 

 other grass, and consequently affords a very early nip to cattle. It has been raised 

 tinder various names, in Virginia as " Randall grass," and in North Carolina as 

 "evergreen grass." Mr. James Taylor, writing from North Carolina, says : "The 

 evergreen grass is very good for pasturing through the fall and winter. It will do 

 best when sown on dry land, and is well adapted to eheep. It grows well on rocky 

 soil to the height of 4 or 5 feet when ripe, continuing green in the spring, and 

 affording fine herbage throughout the winter. It is best to sow in the spring 

 with oats. A peck of well-cleaned seed is enough for an acre, or a bushel in the 

 chaff. It ripens about the first of June. If sown in the spring this grass will not 



