150 
ENGLISH BOTANY. 
Yar. 3 is rather a small state than a true variety, and is noticed here 
only because it was given as species by Smith in his earlier works. 
Wood Fescue- Grass. 
French, Fetuque du Bois. German, Wald Schvingel, 
SPECIES VI._p ESTUCA ELATIOR. " Lhmr Sm. 
Plates MDCCLXXXIX MDCCXC. 
Eeieh. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Heir. Vol. I. Tab. CXLI. Fig. 334. 
F. arundinacea, " Sckreh." Bah. Man. Brit. Bot. ed. ii. p. 42. Eoch, Syn. Fl. Germ, 
et Helv. ed. ii. p. 943. Fries, Smnm. Veg. Scand. p. 75. Gren. & Godr. Fl. de 
Fr. Vol. III. p. 580. Pari Fl. Ital. Vol. I. p. 453. Beich. Ic. l.c. p. 40. 
Schedonorus elatior, Bdm. & Schultes ■ Lindl. Sju. Brit. Fl. p. 313. 
Bacetum elatias. Parn. Grasses of Brit. p. 107. 
Csespitose. Rootstock with rather short thick creeping branches 
terminating in tufts of flowering and barren stems, and with rather 
short stout stolons terminating in barren stems. Flowering stems erect 
from the base, very stout, smooth, leafy, with all the sheaths furnished 
with lamina, but the lowest laminae withered by the time of flowering. 
Leaves all very broadly Hnear, flat, very firm, tapering towards the 
apex for the last quarter of their length, with numerous thick very 
prominent rough ribs, and very scabrous margins, dull green above, 
dark shining-green below; sheaths smooth or rough, the upper- 
most one many (two to six) times longer than its leaf; ligule ex- 
tremely short, many times broader than long, tnmcate, laciniate. 
Panicle equal, lax, more or less secundly drooping and ovate-pyramidal 
and open in flower, erect and closed or open in fruit. Lower panicle- 
branches two at each node of the rachis, each branch of the pair 
bearing several spikelets, but the one much longer and more branched 
than the other, spreading and usually arching in flower, adpressed or 
divaricate in fruit; the uppermost ones shorter, and a few of them 
sohtary and reduced to pedicels bearing a single spikelet; all very 
scabrous. Spikelets 3- to 7-flowered, but usually 5- or 6-flowered, 
at first lanceolate -elliptical, afterwards oblong-elliptical. Glumes un- 
equal, lanceolate, subacute or even mucronate, the lower one 1- 
ribbed, and three quarters the length of the upper, which is 3-ribbed. 
Lower pale broadly lanceolate, longly acuminate, acute or mucronate 
or shortly awned, rather strongly 5-ribbed when dry, with the 
midrib more often reaching the apex, or excurrent from a little below 
the apex, nearly smooth, or rough on the ribs and towards the 
apical margins, bright green, more or less tinged with reddish-purple, 
especially towards the apex, rather broadly white and scarious at the 
margins towards the apex. 
