22 BRITISH SPECIES 
ennial, flowering from end of June to autumn. Often called York- 
shire Fog. 
Festuca pratensis, the Meadow Fescue (fig. 17), has a loosely 
tufted and shortly-stoloniferous rootstock. Leaves flat, gradually 
tapering, with equal, rounded, smooth ribs and roughish margins, 
auricled ; shot with yellow in transmitted light; ligule very short ; 
basal sheaths brown or reddish-purple. Culms 2 feet. Panicle 
turned to one side, and the branches in pairs, one branch bearing 
several spikelets, the other bearing but one spikelet. Spikelets 
half an inch or more in length, tinged with brown, 8- or 9-flowered; 
flowering glumes rounded on the back, mucronate, or the mucro 
often absent, owing to the dorsal 
nerve barely extending to the tip. 
Perennial, flowering close of June, 
July. Var. F. dolzacea, the Spiked 
Fescue, has the spikelets almost 
sessile on the rachis, and may easily 
be passed over as an example of 
Lolium. 
Trisetum flavescens, the Yellow 
Oat, is abundant on heathy uplands, 
as well as in meadows and pastures, 
particularly where the soil is calcare- 
ous. Rootstock with slender stolons. 
Leaves narrow, flaccid, tapering 
finely, hairy on both surfaces, and 
with ciliate margins, light green; 
Jower sheaths clothed with spreading- 
deflexed hairs; ligule very short. 
Culms 1-14 feet. Panicle spreading, 
with numerous short branches, 5-6 
at each insertion; at first it is 
greenish-yellow, then bright yellow, 
YF when it is easily recognised, glossy, 
Fic. 17.—Festuca fei) figs Spikelets + to 4 inch long (much 
ee ee a ge smaller than those of our other Oats), 
etc, oblong or wedge-shaped, and com- 
pressed, 3- or 4-flowered ; flowering 
glumes keeled and bifid, ze. the tip split into two segments, each 
of which is terminated by a short seta or bristle; the flowering 
glumes have also a slender kneed and twisted dorsal awn nearly 
twice their length. Perennial, flowering early part of July, August. 
Agrostis vulgaris, the Fine Bent, has a rootstock more or less 
tufted, and sometimes stoloniferous. Leaves flat, short and narrow, 
tapering from the base, not keeled, dull green; sheaths smooth: 
ligule truncate. Culms 1-14 feet. Panicle with numerous hair-like 
triply-forked branches which are diffuse both in flower and fruit. 
Spikelets J; to 7; inch long, purplish-brown and shining, 1-flowered; 
empty glumes narrow and acute, the lower one with the upper part 
of the keel scabrid ; flowering glume hyaline, truncate, and usually 
