Festuca Pratensis. Meadow Fescue-Grass. 
FESTUCA. Linn. Gen. P/. Triandria Digynia. 
Cal. 2-valvis. Spicula oblonga, teretiufcula, glumis acuminatis. 
Raii Syn. Gen. 27. Herb*: graminifoli*: flore imperfecto culmifer-e. 
FESTUCA pratenfis panicula fecunda obliqua, fpiculis muticis fiiblinearibus, foliis planis. 
FESTUCA elatior Linn. F/. Suec. n. 54. 
FESTUCA pratenfis panicula ere&a, fpiculis linearibus muticis, foliis planis. Hudfon FI. Angi. ed. 1 . 
P- 37 - 
GRAMEN paniculatum elatius, fpicis longis, muticis, fquamofis. Rail Syn. p. 411. 16. Scheuch. 
Agrojl. p. 202. 2. 
PHCENIX multiplici fpicata panicula. Branched Darnel-Graffe. Park. Theat. p. 1145. 
GRAMEN loliaceum panicula multiplici et fpicata. Tourn. Infl. p. 516. Scheuch. Agrojl. p. 200. 1. 
In the environs of London the Fejluca pratenfis is a very common grafs, growing fpontaneoufly in lituations 
widely varied ; we have obferved it in the fand-pits at Charlton, and the olier grounds near Batterfea ; alfo in 
various paftures, and by the fides of paths ; but it abounds moft in fertile meadows which are moderately moift : 
in many parts of Batterfea meadows it may be found moft plentifully. 
It flowers about the middle of June ; feed from a crop of it fown on ground which I occupy at Brompton, 
was ripe and cut by the end of the fame month. 
From long cultivation we have obferved this grafs continue perfe£lly diftin£t, and as we have found it to be a 
very hardy perennial, producing a great crop of defirable herbage, we have recommended it * as one of the 
bcft of our Britilh grafl’es. 
Except in fize, arifing from luxuriance of foil, it is not fubje£t to much variation. 
Several authors have confounded this fpecies with the elatior, to which it certainly bears great affinity; 
Morison and Ray, two of our early writers have the credit of confidering them as diftinft. Ray, in his 
FUJI. PI. has happily difplayed the charafter of the pratenjis, and Morison has well defcribed and figured the 
elatior-, it appears clearly alfo from the following words, which we find at the clofe of the latter’s defcription of 
the elatior, that he regarded the pratenjis as a diitinft fpecies, “ alterum in pratis dimidio minus ejufdem formze 
frequens invenitur, et tanquam diftin&Ee fpeciei habendum.” — Scheuchzer gives a minute defcription of the 
pratenfis, making two varieties of it without any very apparent reafon : it is remarkable that Linndeus does not 
refer to this author either for his elatior or his variety of it. Vaillant, as is evident from his references to 
Ray’s two plants, confiders the elatior and pratenfis as the fame, though Linnasus in his FI. Suec. and Spec. 
Plant, confounds two plants in his references, and quotes indeed a figure in Barrelier, which is neither elatior 
nor pratenfis, but the Fejluca pinnata Hudf. ed. 2. yet we fufpeftF from what he fays of its place of growth, &c. 
for his fpecific defcription is a very inadequate one, that our pratenfis is his elatior-, his var. (3 of the elatior in 
the Sp. PI. ed. 3. is clearly our elatior, but in the Syf. Vegetab.ed. 14. his laid work, the elatior from anew 
reference to Scheuchzer is evidently made our elatior, and the variety is wholly loft fight of. Mr. Hudson 
in the firft edition of his FI. Angl. gave to this grafs the name of pratenfis, which, as the plant is chiefly found* 
in meadows, is an extremely proper one, and as fuch we moft readily adopt it : in the 2d edition of the fame 
work, by fome unaccountable miftake, for fuch it muft be, he has been induced contrary to the opinion of all 
Botamfts to confider it, together with the loliacea as varieties of the Fejluca fluitans, afferting that they change to 
it when cultivated t. We muft obferve that this is not only contrary to our - experience in regard to culture 
but that we have frequently, and this feafon particularly, obferved the pratenfis growing in feveral wet foots in 
Batterfea meadows, clofe to th t fluitans, and that both the graflfes alfumed their ufual appearance; not to mention 
the different habits of thefe plants, the different form of their fpicuhe, &c. the fluitans has a neftary differino- 
widely from that of the pratenjis, elatior, or loliacea, and which alone would remove any doubts could fuch be 
really entertained on this fubjeft. 7 5 uc 
The pratenjis differs from the elatior in its ufual place of growth; we have indeed found them growing clofe 
together; but betw.xt Batterfea and Vauxhall where thefe plants grow abundantly, the elatior fifuallygrows 
feparately from the Pnanjh ; and « have before obferved in the offer grounds, where it has the advantage of 
mot lure and fome fhade ; the pratenjis grows more difperfed in the open meadows, not forming fuch lareemfis 
lT r r Kf e C al ‘° r takm S r P • ° f ,fl“ al ^«.gth and age, and which is to be undelood through the 
who e of the fubfequent eompanfon, is ufually, nearly tw.ee as high, and has foliage tw.ee as broad as that of 
the pratenjis ; the panicle m the e/at, or .s not only much longer, but contains a far greater number of flowers 
m the proporaon of 64 to 128 taken from med.um fpecimens; the panicle in the pratenfis is ufual Jy one ’ 
branched, m theother tw.ee; m the rW .t droops greatly at firft ; in the pratenfis but flU* ■ in X latto ft 
leans to one fide when in flower, and the flowers grow one way ; in the elatior thev orow mJLr 1 r 7 - C 
more on all fides, but the fpiculte afford one of the moft obvious diffiinaions ; in th I pratenjis thefe are fomewhS 
flat, linear, and obtufe; in the elatior more round, ovate, and pointed. * J tornem hat 
Thefe two plants differ alfo about a fortnight or three weeks in their time of flowering. 
. 1. Spicula. 
2. Glumce Calyci nee. 
g, 4. Glumce Corollacece. 
5. NcElaria. 
6. Stamina. 
7. Fiji ilium. 
8. Semen glumis inclufum. 
g. Semen denudatum. 
$ Fig- 
§ 
1. One of the Spiculee. 
2. Glumes of the Calyx. 
3- 4- " Corolla. 
5. The NeElarics. 
6. The Stamina. 
7. The Piflillum. 
8. The Seed enclofed within the Glumes, 
g. The Seed taken out. 
* Vid. Praflical obfervations on the Brilifh grades bed adapted for laving down nr Imn™,,;™ , , „ 
+ Since the above was written we have had the fatisfaftion to learn ^rom Mr ?n J °^ me J d ° w ^ and padnres. 
London, who had the honour of being a pupil to L.nn.eus, and who meditates a'new edition of^he pf Suer^ft^ 6minence now <<> 
pratenfis here figured ns indifputably the elat.orof the FI. Suec. a name Linn^us had been induced to l e t ^ t ‘ ,luftr ‘°^ author, that the 
had then fecn growing, for it appears that he was at that time a ftranger to our Feftuca elatior 8 ‘ bein g tailed fefluca, he 
J . (Feduc. flu, tans) fata in hortis mutatur in * (lolicea) et (pratenfis) primo anno in 0 fecundo in Hudf. FI. Angl. cd. 2 . p . 
