Order GRAMINEflE 
Genus Festuca. 
Sub-Order Festucace/e. 
Genus XXIII.—FESTUCA, Linnams. 
Spikelets pedicelled, several-flowered, racemose, panicled, or spiked. Empty glumes 2, unequal, rounded 
at the back, bifid, awnless or awned between the lobes. Palea 2-nerved, nerves ciliate. Scales 2, 
notched. Stamens 3. Grain glabrous, free or adherent to the palea. Distribution op Genus : 
TEMPERATE AND MOUNTAINOUS REGIONS OF BOTH HEMISPHERES. Etymology: 
A Latin name of doubtful derivation. 
1.— FESTUCA LITTQRA LIS, Var. triticoides. 
SAND-HILL FESCUE GRASS. 
{Plate Z/V.) 
Arundo triodiodes, Trinius. Spec., Gram., t. 51. 
Poa littoralis, Labill. PI. Nov. Holl., I., 22, t. 27. 
Schenodorus littoralis, Beauv. Agrost, 99. 
Schedonorus littoralis, Beauv. Var. triticoides, Bentham, FI. Austral., VII., 655. 
Festuca littoralis, R. Brown. Hook, fil., Handb. N.Z. FI., I., 341. 
A tall, densely-tufted, littoral grass. Flowers —December—February. Culms 1— 3 feet high, leafy, 
smooth and shining. Leaves erect, rigid, involute, terete, pungent, longer or shorter than the culm ; 
sheaths striated ; ligule very short. Panicle narrow, 3— 10 inches long, branches short alternate, erect. 
Spikelets flat, ovate, ij>—f- inch long, 4—8-flowered, straw-coloured. Empty glumes acuminate, 5-nerved. 
Flowering glumes ovate, acuminate, bifid at top, with a very short intermediate awn, 7-nerved. Palea 
bifid, 2-nerved. Scales deep and acutely bifid. Grain ovate, smooth, grooved in front. Distribution 
of Species: AUSTRALIA, TASMANIA, NEW ZEALAND. 
Varieties of the present species are abundant on the coasts of New Zealand, where they are of 
great value in assiting to bind drifting sand. The plant figured here is evidently the variety triticoides , 
Bentham, of Western Australia. This variety is probably the most common on the shores of New 
