Festuca.] LXXXIX. GRAMINEJE. 535 



from about 2 to 4 or 5 feet in height, either tufted or with a shortly 

 creeping rootstock. Leaves flat, but varying much in breadth. Panicle 

 sometimes reduced to a simple spike, with almost sessile, distant 

 spikelets, more frequently branched, but always erect and narrow, from 

 5 or 6 inches to near a foot long. Spikelets 6 lines to near an inch 

 long, containing from 5 to 10 or even more flowers. Flowering glumes, 

 when the panicle is nearly simple, rather broad, scarious at the edge, 

 scarcely pointed, and distinctly 5 -ribbed ; but the more the panicle 

 is branched the narrower and more pointed are the glumes, with 

 less distinct ribs, and sometimes with a distinct but exceedingly short 

 awn. 



In meadows and moist pastures, on banks and riversides, throughout 

 Europe and temperate Asia, except the extreme north. Common in 

 Britain. Fl. summer, rather early. The most marked British forms, 

 often considered as species, are the following : — 



a. F. loliacea, Curt. Spikelets almost sessile, in a simple spike. Grows 

 with the common form, always passing gradually into it. 



b. F. pratensis, Huds. Panicle slightly branched but close. In 

 meadows and pastures. 



c. F. arundinacea, Schreb. A taller, often reed-like plant, with 

 broader leaves, the panicle more branched and spreading. On banks 

 of rivers, and in wet places, especially near the sea. 



3. F. sylvatica, Vill. (fig. 1228). Reed F.—A tall, reed-like perennial, 

 with rather broad, flat leaves, and a rather compact panicle, 4 to 6 

 inches long. Spikelets numerous, smaller even than in F. ovina, seldom 

 containing more than 4 or 5 flowers. Outer glumes much narrower 

 than in the two preceding species, and often almost subulate. Flower- 

 ing glumes about 2 lines long, tapering into a fine point, but not 

 distinctly awned. F. calamaria, Sm. 



In mountain woods, in central Europe, from central France and 

 northern Italy to southern Scandinavia, and eastward to the Russian 

 frontier. Thinly scattered over Great Britain and Ireland, most pre- 

 valent in northern England, but unknown in the north of Scotland. 

 Fl. summer. 



4. F. Myurus, Linn. (fig. 1229). Rat's-tail F.—A. tufted annual, 

 usually about a foot high. Leaves narrow and convolute as in F. ovina. 

 Panicle slender and 1-sided, 2 to 6 inches long, contracted, sometimes 

 spike-like or even reduced to a simple spike ; the branches always short 

 and erect. Spikelets of the size of those of F. ovina, but the glumes 

 narrower, the outer ones very unequal, the flowering ones ending in an 

 awn at least as long as themselves. Vulpia Myurus, Gmel. 



In waste places, on walls, roadsides, &c, in central and southern 

 Europe, extending eastward to the Caucasus and northward into 

 southern Scandinavia. In Britain, rather frequent in England and 

 Ireland, less so in Scotland. Fl. early summer. There are two marked 

 varieties often considered as species, the true F. Myurus (including 

 F. ambigua, Le Gall.), with a panicle of about 3 inches, the flowering- 

 glumes nearly as long as their awn, the lowest empty glume about 2 

 lines long, the second at least 3 lines, and both very pointed ; and 

 F. bromoides, Sm. (sciuroides, Roth.), with a panicle much longer and 

 more slender, the flowering glumes smaller, thinner, and much shorter 

 than their awns, the outermost empty glume not 1 line long, the second 



