103 



often compound, much longer, and stands out from the others. Outer 

 glume always conspicuous, though diifering greatly in its comparative 

 length. Awn-like termination of the outer palea rather longer than 

 . the palea itself. 



Annual. Flowers in June and July, 



Fkstuca mydrus. Wall Fescue Q-rass. Plate LXXXIV. 



Panicle elongated, drooping, raceme-like, contracted, one-sided. 

 Spikelets erect, five- or six-flowered. Lower glume much smaller than 

 the upper. Stem leafy to the summit. 



Festuca myurus, Linnaeus ? Smith. E. B. 1412 ; ed. 2. 144 * : My- 

 galurus caudatus, Link. Loudon, Encycl. 64 ; Hort. Brit. 30. 



Common, in the southern and midland counties of England at least, on 

 walls and barren ground, and occasionally even on arable land in dry 

 situations. Stems slender, tufted, sometimes more than a foot in height. 

 It so closely resembles F. sciv/roides in all general features, as almost to 

 defy description as a separate species. The greater length of the more 

 compact, drooping panicle, which not unfrequently extends to that of 

 five or six inches ; the shortness of its lower branches, and the usually 

 broader and brighter green leaves, are the most striking characters of 

 the Wall Fescue. In its taller and more luxuriant form there are 

 few grasses more beautiful, especially when in exposed situations its 

 tufts of graceful plume-like masses of flowers wave with every breath 

 of wind. 



Annual. Flowers in June and July. 



In describing and figuring the above three grasses, the author has no 

 intention of insisting on their claim to specific distinction, being himself 

 fully persuaded that they are forms of one. With regard to the latter 

 two, this opinion is entertained by most botanists who have studied the 

 structural modifications to which the plants of this important division of 

 the vegetable kingdom are liable ; and though the first, F. uniglumis,. 

 is retained, in our most recent descriptive catalogues, as a separate 

 species, the only character upon which such separation depends, is the 

 imperfect development of an organ of comparatively small value. The 

 abortion of the outer glume, were it constant, might, it is true, be 

 admitted as constituting a distinctive feature, equivalent to the absence 

 of the inner palea in the flowers of Alopecurus ; but it is not so, the 

 glume in question being often sufficiently conspicuous to arrest the eye 

 of even a casual observer — while in F. sciuroides and F. myurus the 

 corresponding organ is occasionally so little developed in some of the 

 spikelets as to be a mere scale. 



* * Root leaves narrow or setaceous. Awn terminal, shorter than the 

 palea. Flowers triandrous. 



