TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Fkstuca. 
181 
Tall Fescue Grass. Bromus giganteus. Linn. Huds. With. Curt. 
Willd. Schreb. Leers. F. gigantea. Villars. Sm. Hook. Grev. In 
woods and moist hedges. P. July—Aug. E.)* 
(2) Panicle pointing one way : awns shorter than the blossom. 
F. ovi'na. Panicle compact, awned: straw quadrangular, almost 
naked: leaves bristle-shaped: (florets cylindrical, pointed or 
awned; smooth at the base, and at the edges of the inner- 
valve : stipula short and obtuse. Sm. 
E. Bot. 585— Hort. Gram. E.)— Mus. Rust. iv. 2. 4— Leers 8. 3. 
From five to eight inches high, but twice as tall when cultivated. Panicle 
one and a half to two inches long, mostly pointing one way. Spikets 
from three to five-flowered, generally four, and an imperfect rudiment of 
a fifth. Calyx one valve only three-quarters the length of the other. 
Awns of various lengths, but generally about one-sixth the length of the 
blossom. 
(Var. 2. Panicle more purple; that colour sometimes extending to the 
leaves and straw. Plant considerably larger. 
F. rubra. With. Ed. 6. not of Linn. F. ovina j8. Sm. On the coast near 
Whitburn, Durham; also at Hartley and Holy Island. Mr. Winch. 
About Stony Cross, in the New Forest. E.) 
(Var. 3. Chiefly distinguished by its viviparous habit, which has been 
proved to continue invariable for years in a garden. E.) 
E. Bot. 1355. 
(Mr. Sinclair states, I have cultivated this grass on a variety of soils, and 
never could obtain a floret with either stamen or pistil. The germen, or 
rudiment of the future plant, in its first stage, appears like a minute 
globule of water, visible only with the microscope; after the spike is 
developed, it gradually assumes an oblong figure, becomes pointed, and 
at last puts forth a single leaf, after the manner of the perfect seed of 
grasses; other leaves succeed to this, till the weight of these, now a 
perfect plant, except the root, forces it to fall from the spike on the 
ground, where it soon strikes root. This is a curious exception to the 
general law of nature, in the propagation of plants by seed. Here is a 
plant which has every part of a flower, except the two essential parts, 
stamens and pistils, for its propagation, and for its admission into this 
class of the system of Linnaeus. Yet, from this imperfect flower, it 
produces perfect plants. In other viviparous grasses, the seed is first 
perfected, and merely vegetates in the husk from accidental circum¬ 
stances, as growing in shaded places, and from long continuance of 
moist warm weather.” 
Welsh: Peisg-wellt bywhiliog. F. ovina (3. Linn. Willd. Hook. Salisb. 
F. ovina , Var. 4. With. Ed. 4. F. vivipera. Sm. With. Ed. 6. Sine. 
Natural to alpine situations; as on Ingleborough, Skiddaw, Snowdon, 
and most of the Scottish mountains. FI. Brit. On High Street, the 
highest hill in Westmoreland. Mr. Gough. In a field called Cae 
Graeanog, Dinam demesne, Anglesey. Welsh Bot. By the fall of Low- 
dore, Keswick. E.)t 
9 (A coarse grass. The seeds are acceptable to birds. Hort. Gram. E.) 
t (From trials that have been made, it appears to have no excellence for agricultural 
purposes. Sinclair. E.) 
