20 BRITISH SPECIES 
Festuca duriuscula, the Hard Fescue, is readily distinguished 
from the other grasses of our meadows and pastures by its leaves, 
which are subsetaceous (almost bristle-like) and dark-green ; those 
springing from the rootstock are conduplicate, and when forcibly 
unfolded show three prominent ribs ; the culm-leaves are nearly flat ; 
ligule obsolete, except for two very minute auricles. The rootstock 
is more or less tufted, and shortly stoloniferous. Culms, 13-2 feet. 
Panicle somewhat unilateral, with short, spreading branches. 
Spikelets about 3 inch Jong, purplish, and often glaucous, 5- or 6- 
flowered ; empty glumes unequal ; flowering ones narrow, rounded 
on the back, and tapering into a 
very shortawn. Perennial, flower- 
ing mid-June, July. 
Lolium perenne, the Perennial 
Rye-grass, has a tufted rootstock, 
not creeping. Leaves narrow, 
tapering from the base, keeled, with 
prominent ribs, rather glaucous 
above, deep-green, smooth and 
shining beneath, auricled; sheaths 
compressed and young leaves con- 
duplicate ; basal sheaths bright red. 
Culms 14-2 feet. Spikelets about 
4 inch long, 6- or more flowered, 
and sessile edgewise, one in each 
notch ofthe rachis, forming a some- 
what zigzag spike 4-8 inches long. 
There is only one empty glume at 
the base of each spikelet (the ter- 
minal spikelet excepted) ; flower- 
ing glumes obtuse, rounded on the 
back, as long as the empty one, 
sometimes awned (var. arzstatumt). 
y In some examples the rachis is 
_ very short, and the spikelets 
Fic. 15.—Dactylis glomerata: lower Crowded. Perennial, flowering from 
left-hand figure an enlarged spikelet ; on middle of June to autumn. 
right hand flowering glume, palea, and Dactylis glomerata the Rough 
flower, more enlarged. ? 
Cocksfoot (fig. 15), has a densely 
tufted rootstock, the basal part very stout, compressed, and colour- 
less. Leaves long and rather broad, gradually tapering, condupli- 
cate when young, afterwards flat, faintly ribbed or striated, and 
prominently keeled, bluish-green ; ligule long, acute. Culms 2-3 
feet. Panicle stiff, unilateral, with a few alternate branches, the 
lower of which are remote, purplish. Spikelets about } inch long, 
compressed, and 3- or 4-flowered, crowded into dense, one-sided 
clusters at the extremities of the branches ; flowering glumes with 
a ciliate keel, and a short, scabrid awn. In dwarf specimens the 
panicle is often reduced toa single cluster. Perennial, flowering 
from the latter half of June to autumn. 
