114 Bulletin VII. 1. 



loose and spreading panicles; rachilla articulated above the empty 

 glumes and between the florets. Empty glumes at the base of the 

 spikelets two, more or less unequal, narrow and acute. Flower- 

 ing glumes rounded on the back, at least below, acute (rarely ob- 

 tuse) or tapering into a straight awn, faintly three- to five-nerved, 

 not webbed at the base. Stamens three. Styles very short, dis- 

 tinct; stigmas plumose. Grain elongated, furrowed, frequently 

 adnate, or grown to, the palea or floral glume. 



Usually cespitose, perennial (rarely annual) grasses of varying 

 habit. 



Species about eighty, in all parts of the world, especially the 

 temperate regions. Many are valuable forage plants. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



I. Plants annual; panicles strict, somewhat one-sided, florets 



awl-shaped, awned or awn-pointed 2 



1. Plants perennial 3 



2. Empty glumes nearly equal; awns 2 lines long or less . . 



I. F. TENELLA. 



2. Empty glumes very unequal, awns 4 to 6 lines long, much 



exceeding the florets 2. F. Myurus. 



3. Leaves very narrow, convolute-setaceous, at least those at 



the base. Plants tufted or cespitose 4 



3. Leaves flat, those of the culm 2 to 4 lines wide 5 



4. Plants strictly cespitose, with no creeping rootstock . . . 



3. F. OVINA. 



4. Plants with a manifest rootstock or stoloniferous .... 



4. F. RUBRA C^RULESCENS. 



5. Culms 2 to 5 feet high. Spikelets 5 to 9 lines long, 5- to 10- 



flowered; flowering glumes herbaceous, with scarious 

 margins 5- F. elatior. 



5. Spikelets 2 to 3 lines long, 3- t0 4-flowered, flowering glumes 



rigid or subcoriaceous 6 



6. Spikelets broadly obovate, crowded at the ends of the 



branches; flowering glumes obtuse, somewhat turgid . . 



6. F. Shortii. 



6. Spikelets lanceolate, not conspicuously crowded, flowering 

 glumes acute 7. F. nutans. 



I. Festuca tenella Willd. Slender Fescue. 



Plate XL. Figure 158. 



A slender, erect annual, six to eighteen inches high, with short, 

 nearly subulate leaves, and a simple, somewhat one-sided panicle. 

 Culms, nodes, sheaths, and leaves smooth, or minutely pubescent; 

 leaves two to four inches long, very narrow. Inflorescence a nar- 

 row raceme, simple, one to seven inches long; branches erect, or in 

 robust plants somewhat divergent. Spikelets three to five lines 

 long, lanceolate, six- to fourteen-flowered; empty glumes nearly 

 equal, slightly keeled, scabrous on the keel, shorter than the floral 

 glumes, the first very narrow, one-nerved, the second broader and 

 three-nerved; flowering glumes about two lines long, very narrow 



I 



