48 PEEMANENT AND TEMPOEAEY PASTUEES. 



planting of the divided roots of the indigenous variety, or as 

 the result of sowing seed of the Continental form — Festuca arun- 

 dinacea — equally maintains the characteristic creeping habit of 

 the root which is one distinctive feature as compared with Festuca 

 pratensis Hudsoni. 



When not in flower this variety may be recognised by the 

 following characteristics of the herbage. Upper surface of the 

 deep green leaf very prominently ribbed, and hard to the touch, 

 especially so at the edges. The lower sheaths are striated, rough, 

 and more or less yellow. 



The botanical description and analysis are given at page 154, 

 facing an illustration. 



FESTUCA PEATENSIS— VAE. LOLIACEA 

 [Darnel-like Fescue). 



This grass is the form which Festuca pratensis assumes in 

 certain alluvial districts. Professor Buckman, in his ' Natural 

 History of British Meadow and Pasture Grasses,' says : ' Loliacea 

 is not only found, but is constant and a most valuable grass for 

 hay or pasture in meadows by the side of rivers, especially where 

 subject to floods, as the Isis at Oxford, or irrigated meadows 

 on the banks of the Churn at Cirencester.' Seed saved from 

 pure loliacea plants sown in the Cirencester botanical garden 

 brought the true spicate-flowered variety, yet in three years the 

 plants changed to a panicled Fescue indistinguishable from true 

 pratensis growing alongside ; and there is no reason to doubt 

 that true Festuca pratensis sown in soil which loliacea affects 

 would in three or four years produce the loliacea peculiarities. 

 Mr. Baker, of Kew, fully confirms, I think, the inference drawn 

 from Professor Buckman's experiment when he says : ' Loliacea 

 is a mere variety of pratensis. My friend Mr. Watson experi- 

 mented on loliacea in garden soil, and it simply grew into 

 pratensis.' Sinclair mentions an idea which was started at the 

 beginning of the century, that Festuca loliacea was a mule or 



