101 



lanceolate ; the lower one rounded on the back, very acute, or 

 with the dorsal vein excurrent as an awn a little below the apex ; 

 lateral veins slightly converging and disappearing below the apex : 

 upper palea minutely ciliated on the veins. Styles terminal. 



An extensive genus, very widely distributed over the north tem- 

 perate zone, throughout which some of its species constitute no' incon- 

 siderable portion of the pasture vegetation, and occupy a high grade 

 among the grasses most remarkable for nutritive qualities; others, 

 however, are mere colonizers, and worthless in an agricultural point 

 of view. 



The name is Latin, but of doubtful origin and application, though it 

 seems to have been bestowed, in this instance, in allusion to the 

 supposed foodful attributes- of several well-known species or varieties. 

 Fest is the Celtic word for food, probably from the same root with 

 the Latin festvm ; but the discussion of an etymological problem must 

 be dismissed to other pages. 



As a genus, Festuca is not very strikingly distinguishable from 

 either Poa or Bromm, and close comparison between the generic 

 characters of all the three will be found valuable by those whose 

 previous acquaintance with the species of each is limited. 



Our figures of the forms of Festuca are far more numerous than 

 are the species, simply because European botanists are not agreed as 

 to the limits of the latter, and that the variable aspects of some among 

 them are liable to mislead the uninitiated. Hence, we have availed 

 ourselves of the numerous specimens contained in the herbarium of the 

 elder Mr. Sowerby, for the identification of the plants of this genus, 

 published as species in the first edition of the ' English Botany,' for 

 the republication of the whole series ; not studying them _ alone as 

 originals of the figures in that admirable work, but as aids to the 

 determination of examples collected for the present. 



The characters of the four sections, denoted by asterisks, indicate 

 the limits of as many genera into which Festuca is occasionally 

 divided, but which are not adopted as such by English writers. 



* Eoot-leaves very narrow. Ligule with round auricles. Awl terminal, 

 longer than the palea. Flowers usually monandrous. 



Festuca uniolumis. Single-glumed Fescue Grass. Plate LXXXII. 



Panicle nearly erect, one-sided, contracted, raceme-like. Spikelets 

 in two rows. Lower glume very minute, or absent. 



Festuca uniglumis, Solander. E. B. 1430 ; ed. 2. 145. Hooker and 

 Arnott. Babington. Parnell. Beniham. Vulpia uniglumis, 

 Lindley. Mygalurus uniglumis, LinTc. Loudon, Encycl. 64 ; 

 Hort. Brit. 30. 



Very local in its distribution in these islands, where it is almost exclu- 

 sively limited to the sandy sea-shores of the southern and south-eastern 



