114 



Fescue is never altogether destitute of a smaller inner one likewise. 

 There is much differenee of opinion respecting the claim of this latter 

 to rank as a distinct species, most modem botanists being inclined to 

 .regard it a mere variety of Festuca pratensis with sessile or but slightly 

 stalked spikelets, the structural resemblance to that species having 

 been long acknowledged, and specimens of an intermediate character 

 being far from unfrequent. It is placed here, at the conclusion of 

 the series, instead of occupying the position it ought to have were this 

 view correct ; because my own opinion accords with that of the Rev. 

 G-. Swayne, as quoted by Withering in his ' Arrangement of British 

 Plants,' who thus writes: — "Admiring the appearance of this grass 

 when it first occurred to me, I transplanted some roots into my garden. 

 The same season I fenced round with hurdles a considerable patch of 

 it, which I found growing in a close in my own occupation, with a view 

 to save the seed. But when I came to gather it, I was much disap- 

 pointed, not finding a single seed in any of the spikes. Supposing this 

 might have been owing to accident, I increased what I had in my 

 garden tUl it occupied a plat of six feet square. It grew well, and pro- 

 duced a full crop of flowering spikes. The stamens were apparently 

 perfect, and shed a large quantity of pollen, and the pistils were pro- 

 truded and expanded, as if in a state fit to receive impregnation, but 

 not a single seed was formed. This has been its annual process for a 

 number of years." AE who have made the Spiked Fescue G-rass the 

 subject of experiment since Swayne wrote, concur in recording its 

 tendency to infertility, and although a few seeds are occasionally pro- 

 duced, in meadow specimens, which have the appearance of being per- 

 fect, they are seldom, if ever, found to vegetate. The author of the 

 above remarks, considering such constant barrenness a certain criterion 

 of hybridity, proposed to call it Festuca hyhrida, and imputed its origin 

 to intercourse between F. pratensis and Lolium perenne, a conclusion 

 which I believe to be correct, though unable at present to certify. 



From the Woburn experiments it appears to be far superior to Eay 

 Grass for the purposes either of hay or permanent pasture, as the crop 

 is not only larger in proportion but the produce durable, instead of 

 diminishing, as where the latter grass is concerned, year after year. 

 To the practical farmer it cannot, however, as a seedless grass, be 

 deserving of notice. 



Genus 36. BROMUS. Brome Grass. 



Gen. Chak. Inflorescence paniculate, generally loose and spreading. 

 Spikelets many-flowered, more or less laterally compressed.^ 

 Glumes two, unequal, more or less carinate, not longer than the 

 lowermost flowers. Palese two, herbaceous ; the external one 

 awned below the bifid apex ; the inner one ciliated on the veins. 

 Styles inserted below the apex of the ovary. 



The genus is a large one, comprising sixty or seventy species, 

 distributed principally over the northern hemisphere, and almost 



