534 THE GRASS FAMILY. 
XXXII. FESTUCA. FESCUE. 
Spikelets several-flowered, usually numerous, in a compact or slightly 
spreading panicle (in one variety reduced to a simple spike). Outer 
elumes unequal, keeled. Flowering glumes lanceolate, convex on the 
back, pointed or tapering into an awn, scarcely scarious at the edges. 
Ovary glabrous, rarely downy, with the styles termina], Grain usually 
adnate to the palea. | 
A genus widely distributed over the temperate regions of the globe, 
and numerous in forms if not in species. It differs from Poa only in 
the longer, more pointed, or awned glumes; from Bromus in the in- 
florescence, in the more terminal points or awns, the edges of the 
elumes less scarious and scarcely, if at all, extended beyond the com- 
mencement of the awn, as well as in the glabrous ovary and more 
terminal styles of most of the species. 
Awns none, or not above a line long. 
Leaves, at least the radical ones, subulate and almost cylin- 
drical. Stems seldom 2 feet high. _ s ‘ 3 . L. F. ovina. 
Leaves flat. Stems 2 to 6 feet high. ¢ 
Spikelets 3- to 5-flowered. Outer glumes linear. Flowering 
glumes narrow . : ; : ; : . 3. F. sylvatica. 
Spikelets 5- to 10-flowered. Outer glumes lanceolate. 
Flowering glumes broadly lanceolate ; 3 : . 2. F. elatior. 
Awns as long as or longer than the glumes. 
Panicle loose and spreading. Stem 3 to 4 feet . : . Bromus giganteus. 
Panicle 1-sided, narrow and compact or spikelike. Stems 
annual, under a foot high. 
Outer glumes narrow, the lowest 1 to 2 lines, the second 2 
to 3 lines long 4, F. Myurus. 
Lowest glume a minute scale, ‘the second lanceolate, 4 to 6 
lines long . 5 : : : : : . 5. F. uniglumis. 
1. F. ovina (fig. 1226). Sheep’s F.—A densely tufted or more 
rarely shortly creeping perennial, 6 inches to near 2 feet high. Leaves 
chiefly radical, very narrow, and almost cylindrical, the few stem ones 
more rarely flattened. Panicle rather compact and slightly 1-sided, 
from 14 to 4 inches long. Spikelets smaller than in F. elatior; the 
glumes narrower, glabrous or downy, very faintly nerved, and almost 
always bearing a fine point or awn about a line long. 
In hilly pastures, most abundant in dry, open situations, more rarely 
in moist places, throughout Europe and Asia, from the Mediterranean to 
the Arctic regions, and in North America and Australasia. Abundant 
in Britain. Fl. summer. In mountain pastures it is very apt to become 
viviparous, the glumes becoming elongated and leaf-like, and this state 
has been described as F. vivipara, 8m. The following British varieties 
are sometimes ranked as species :— 
a. Common F. ovina. Stem not a foot high, with dense tufts of subu- 
late leaves. In dry, hilly pastures. /. glauca, Sm. 
b. F. duriuscula, Linn. ‘Taller but tufted, the radical leaves subulate, 
1 or 2 stem ones usually flattened. In moister and more luxuriant 
pastures. 
c. Ff. sabulicola, Duf. (rubra, Linn.). Rootstock more or less creeping, 
all the leaves subulate. In light sandy or loose stony places, attaining 
sometimes, especially near the sea, above 2 feet in height. 
raga elatior, Linn. (fig. 1227). Meadow F.—A perennial, varying — 
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