FeStUCa.] GRAMINEiE. 607 



rubra, L., E. B. t. 2056. Host. Gram. Aust. ii. 59, t. 82. An F. hirsuta, Fl. 

 Dan. t. 1627. 



In dry, elevated, open pastures. Fl. June, July. If. 



/3. Common in dry pastures and on the downs. 



y. In loose sand by the sea-shore, and in sandy pastures. On the Dover, be- 

 low St. Helens, and on the spit at Norton, by Yarmouth, frequent. 



*** Panicle branched, widely spreading. Spikelets ovate or lanceolate. Florets 

 awnless. Root perennial. 



Schedonorus, P. de Beauv. 



4. F. arundinacea, Schreb. ? Tall Fescue-grass. " Panicle 

 diffuse patent much-branched, branches divaricated after flower- 

 ing mostly in pairs each with 2 or more (usually numerous) spike- 

 lets, spikelets 5 — ^6 flowered, outer glumella 5 -ribbed with a very 

 short or obsolete awn, leaves linear-lanceolate." — Br. Fl. p. 546. 

 F. elatior. E. B. t. 1593. F. littorea, Wahlenb. Fl. Suec. ed. 1, 

 i. p. 65 ? Bromus littoreus. Host. Gram. Aust. i. 7, t. 8. Buce- 

 tum, Parn. Gr. tt. 46, 47. 



On the moist sandy sea-beach, and wet banks along the shore. Fl. June, 

 July. v.. 



E. Med. — Upper end of Sandown bay, near the Culvers. Abundant on the 

 wet slipped land under the cliffs at the mouth of Luccombe chine, on the Shanklin 

 side. Frequent under the shore W. of Ryde. [Near the shore at Niton, A. O. 

 More, Esq., Edrs.] 



W. Med. — Plentiful along the shore on either side of Yarmouth. 

 Of this lall and stout grass Mr. Hewett C. Watson, who had also remarked it 

 at Luccombe, writes, March, 1842 : — " There is a large Festuca by the shore at 

 the entrance to Luccombe chine which has puzzled me a good deal. A root now 

 in my garden, I believe to have been brought from that spot, produces leaves near 

 a yard long, and a culm 5 feet high, with very numerous spikelets, much more 

 ovate than those of F. pratensis, and with the glumes and palese more acute and 

 slightly awned. I fancy this to be the F. arundinacea of continental botanists. 

 I have seen the same plant at Exmouth and Plymouth." In a subsequent letter 

 Mr. Watson remarks : — "As to the Festuca arundinacea, you may be correct in 

 terming it a form of F. pratensis (which I did then, and still consider the F. 

 arundinacea of authors to be), but it is a very remarkable one, and if a form of 

 F. pratensis, Huds., it is certainly an identical species with F. loliacea, from which 

 it greatly differs. Having seen almost every link from ordinary F. loliacea to F. 

 pratensis in its highly developed form, I am quite satisfied of their unity as a spe- 

 cies, but whether F. elatior of Linnaeus ought to be joined with them I know not. 

 It seems indeed a 'lumping' to join these five: — 



F. loliacea, L. 



F. pratensis, Huds. 



F. elatior, L. 



F. arundinacea, Schreb. 



F. arundinacea, Bot. Gall, (not Schreb.) 

 I should unite the 1st and 2nd,— the 3rd and 4lh. The 6th, not the 4th, I take 

 to be the Isle-of-Wighl shore Festuca." 



5. F. pratensis, HxiAs. Meadow Fescue-grass. ''Panicle close 

 never divaricated, branches in pairs, one bearing a single spikelet, 

 the other a solitary or several spikelets sometimes wanting, spike- 

 lets 5—10 flowered, outer glumella 5-ribbed with a very short or 

 obsolete awn, leaves linear-lanceolate. — a. Some or all of the 

 branches of the panicle in pairs, one usually with several spike- 



