GENERA OF GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 
31 
The subgenus Hesperochloa includes a single species Festuca 
confinis Vasey, a stout tufted perennial with creeping rhizomes, firm 
flat blades, and narrow panicles of awnless spikelets. 
The remaining species, all perennials, are placed in the subgenus 
Eufestuca. Mountain bunch-grass (F. viridula Vasey) with nar- 
row flat or loosely involute blades and awnless spikelets is common 
in the subalpine meadows of the northwestern mountains where it 
constitutes an important part of the forage. Festuca subulata Trim, 
a common woodland species of the Northwestern States, has flat thin 
blades and very open panicles of long-awned spikelets. Much re- 
sembling this is F. suhuliflora Scribn., which is peculiar in having 
a stipelike elongation at the base of the florets. An allied Califor- 
nian species, F. elmeri Scribn. and Merr., has spikelets like F. subulata, 
but the awn arises between the two minute teeth of the lemma. Fes- 
tuca ohtusa Spreng. is an eastern woodland species with very loose 
sparingly branched panicle and few awnless spikelets. The largest 
species of the genus in the United States is F, calif ornica Vasey, 
found in dry woods of western California and Oregon. This grows 
in large tufts, with culms as much as 5 feet tall, hard flat or loosely 
involute blades, pilose on the collar, and large panicles. 
The type species, Festuca ovina, is the representative of a large 
group of varieties or closely allied species in Europe. Festuca ovina 
itself is cultivated as a lawn or pasture grass under the name of 
sheep's fescue. It is a tufted grass 6 to 18 inches tall with firm, short, 
involute blades, crowded at the base of the slender culms, and narrow 
panicles of short-awned spikelets. This grass is used in mixtures 
for sterile or stony soil. Three allied European species are used in 
the same way but especially in mixtures for lawns. These are F. 
duriuscula L., hard fescue (a species rare in America), with blades 
about 1 mm. broad; F. heterophylla~LsLm., with flat stem blades; and 
F. capillata Lam., with very fine blades and awnless spikelets. Ked 
fescue, F. rubra L. (fig. 6), differs in the loosely tufted culms with 
decumbent usually red bases. This is native in both Europe and 
America. Two species allied to F. ovina are native in the Western 
States and are both important range grasses. These are F. idahoensis 
Elmer (F. ingrata (Hack.) Rydb.), blue bunch-grass, with pale 
narrow stiff harshly scabrous blades 6 to 15 inches long, and awned 
spikelets, common from British Columbia to Colorado and Cali- 
fornia ; and F. arizonica Vasey, Arizona fescue, with nearly awnless 
spikelets, found in northern Arizona and southern Utah. 
The most important cultivated species of the genus is Festuca 
elatior L., meadow fescue (PI. II ; fig. 7) . This is a smooth perennial, 
1 to 4 feet high, with flat blades and a narrow but rather loose panicle 
4 to 8 inches long, the awnless spikelets about half an inch long. 
Meadow fescue is cultivated for hay and pasture in the humid region, 
