147 
species under one name and separated slight varieties as distinct species. 
In writing a systematic -work even of the smallest pretensions (how 
much more then on the scale of Linnteus' writings), it will always be 
found that some of the sections have been more completely studied 
than others ; and when these least -considered groups come in their turn 
to be described, time and opportunity are generally wanting to arrive 
at a satisfactory conclusion respecting them. They have to be worked 
out as best they can to take their place in the work, and form those 
weak points in it of which critics are so prone to lay hold and cry 
" Ex uno disce omnes." 
Probably much of the alpine viviparous Festuca belongs really to 
F. duriuscula; but I have collected the true F. ovina viviparous in 
Orkney and Mull ; and a non-viviparous state brought into Balmuto 
Garden, has this year (1871) become viviparous. Probably this is 
owing to the rainy summer, as I have seen Alopecurus pratensis and 
C^Tiosurus cristatus viviparous in places where I could not have failed 
to observe them had they been so in previous years, 
F. c£Bsia, Sm. Engl. Bot. Ed. I. No. 1917, judging from the plate, 
is apparently a form of F. duriuscula and not of F. ovina, though 
doubtless Smith included under that name glaucous states of the true 
F. ovina. 
Hard Fescue- Grass. 
French, Fetuque dure. German, StdrJcerer ScJiivingel. 
Sub-Species n.— Festuca arenaria. Oshed: 
Plate MDCCLXXXVI. 
Billot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Ezsicc. JTo. 2184. 
F. subuHcola, Lean Dtifmir. Dnby, Bot. Gal. p. 517. 
F. ovina, var. a, Hook. & Am. Brit. Fl. ed. viii. p. 658. 
F. rubra, var. arenaria, Bah. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. vi. p. 419. Koch, Sjn. Fl. Germ. 
et Helv. ed. ii. p. 939. 
F. rubra, Sm. Eng. Bot. ed. i. m. 2056. 
Not at aU caespitose. Eootstock very extensively creeping; stolons 
long. Leaves of the barren shoots conduplicate, thick, firm, on short 
barren stems or elongate shoots ; stem-leaves conduplicate, or the up- 
permost ones deeply channelled, with a few very thick prominent 
cartilaginous ribs. 
On dunes and among loose sand on the sea-shore. Common and 
generally distributed. 
England, Scotland, Ireland. Perennial. Summer. 
Stems 8 inches to 2 feet high. Longest leaves 3 to 6 inches. 
Panicle 2 to 6 inches. Spikele'ts i to | inch. Spikelets 1 inch, ex- 
clusive of the awn, which is rarely hall' the length of the pale, and 
sometimes wboUy absent. 
