THE AGRICULTURAL GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 103 



Festuca elatior. (Meadow Fescue grass, Tall Fescue, Randall grass, 



Evergreen grass.) 

 A perennial grass, growing from 2 to 4 feet high, with flat, broadish 

 leaves about a foot long. The panicle is somewhat one-sided, loose^ 

 and spreading when in flower, contracted after flowering, from 6 to 

 10 inches long, the branches 1 to 2 inches long, erect, mostly in pairs 

 below, single above, subdivided; the spikelets are lanceolate or linear, 

 about half an inch long, five to ten flowered. The outer glumes are 

 one and three nerved, shorter than the flowers; the flowering glumes 

 are lanceolate, about three lines long, firm in texture, five-nerved, scari- 

 ous at the margin, acute, and sometimes with a short but distinct awn 

 at the apex. This is an introduced species, now frequently met with 

 in meadows; it is one of the standard meadow grasses of Europe* 

 Cattle are said to be very fond of it, both green and as hay. There is 

 a smaller form or variety which is the variety pratensis or Festuca pra- 

 tensis, Hudson. 



Professor Killebrew, of Tennessee, writes of this grass as follows: 



This grass has received some attention in different parts of the State, and has met 

 with a warm reception from those testing it. It ripens its seed long before any other 

 grass, and consequently affords a very early nip to cattle. It has been raised under 

 various names, in Virginia as " Randall grass," and in North Carolina as ''evergreen 

 grass." Mr. James Taylor, writing from North Carolina, says: "The evergreen grass 

 is very good for pasturing through the fall and winter. It will do best when sown 

 on dry land, and is well adapted to sheep. It grows well on rocky soil to the height 

 of 4 or 5 feet when ripe, continuing green in the spring, and affording fine herbage 

 throughout the winter. It is best to sow in the spring with oats. A peck of well- 

 cleaned seed is enough for an acre, or a bushel in the chaff\ It ripens about the 1st 

 of June. If sown in the spring this grass will not go to seed before the next year, 

 but if sown in the fall it will bring seed the next spring." From the limited culti- 

 vation it has met with in Tennessee, it seems rather to be better adapted to moist, low- 

 lands, though I have seen it growing on some of the high ridges of East Tennes- 

 see, at least 1,500 feet above the sea. There ifc thrives luxuriantly and makes a very 

 superior pasture. 



Professor Phares, of Mississippi, says : 



It grows well in nearly all situations, wet or dry, on hill or bottom land, even 

 though subject to overflow, and matures an extraordinary quantity of seed. The 

 seeds germinate readily, and it is easy to set a piece of land with this grass. Seeded 

 alone, 28 pounds, or about 2 bushels, of seed should be sown broadcast in August, Sep- 

 tember, October, or from the middle of February to the 1st of April. From remain- 

 ing green through the winter it is sometimes called " evergreen grass." Mowed and 

 dried it makes a good hay, much relished by stock. 



(Plate 107.) 



Festuca ovina. (Sheep's Fescue grass.) 



A densely-tufted, perennial grass, with an abundance of rather nar- 

 row, sometimes involute, short radical leaves and slender culms, 1 to 

 1^ feet high. The panicle is 2 to 4 inches long, narrow, the branches 

 mostly single and alternate, erect and few-floweied ; the spikelets are 



