534 THE GKASS FAMILY. [Festuca. 



XXXI. FESTUCA. FESCUE. 



Spikelets several-flowered, usually numerous, in a compact or slightly 

 spreading panicle (in one variety reduced to a simple spike). Outer 

 glumes 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 terminal. 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 

 glumes 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 1. 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 . . . . 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. 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 1| 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, Sm. 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. F. 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. F. sabulicola, Duf. (rubra, Linn. ). Kootstock 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. 



2. F. elatior, Linn. (fig. 1227). Meadow F. — A perennial, varying 



