44 THE GRASSES OF MAINE. 



44. Festuca elatior, Linneus. 



Fes-tu'-ca e-la'-ti-or. 



PLATE XXI. 



Common Names. Meadow Fescue, Taller or Meadow Fescue. 



Perennial. Stems erect, from three to five feet high ; leaves 

 about a foot long, sheaths smooth and loose. Panicle from six to 

 eight inches long, erect, with short branches ; spikelets crowded, 

 from five to ten-flowered, the flowers rather remote, oblong-lanceo- 

 late ; flowering glume five-nerved, either blunt, acute, or rarely with 

 a very short awn. 



Common in grass lands. Flowers in July ; earlier than Timo- 

 thy. 



It succeeds best in moist, low grounds. Cattle are very fond of 

 it, both green and when made into ha}\ 



Specimens from Pennsylvania were analyzed at the Department 

 of Agriculture in Washington, and gave ash 8.07, fat 4.07, nitrogen- 

 free extract 51.59, crude fiber 22.50, albuminoids 13.77. 



Genus Bromus, Linneus. 

 Bro'-mus. 



From the Greek, bromus, a kind of oats. 



Spikelets from five to many-flowered in a more or less open pani- 

 cle ; glumes unequal, shorter than the flowers, the lower from one 

 to five, the upper from three to nine-nerved ; flowering glume either 

 convex on the back or compressed keeled, from five to nine-nerved, 

 awned or bristle pointed from below the mostly two-cleft tip ; palea 

 rather shorter than the glumes, two-keeled, the keels rigid and 

 ciliate. 



Three species have been observed in Maine, and may be separated 

 as follows : 



Lower glume 3-5-nerved, the upper, 5-9-nerved . .B. secalinus. 



Lower glume one-nerved, the upper three-nerved, 



B. ciliatus and B. asper. 



