TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Festuca. 
383 
(F. ru'bra. Panicle unilateral, spreading: florets longer than their 
awns: leaves downy on the upper side, more or less involute: 
root extensively creeping. 
E. Bot. 2056— Stillingf. 9— Scheuch. 6. 9. 
Boot often extending, on the sea coast, to many feet, or even yards, in 
length. A chief inducement with Smith, Schrader, and Sinclair, to con¬ 
sider this plant a species. Upper leaves broader also than F. duriuscula 
(with which it has been assimilated by Hooker), and yet rather involute 
than at any time compressed; their upper side furrowed and downy; 
the under smooth. Panicle often a little glaucous. Florets more or less 
downy. Sm. 
We cannot but entertain great doubts of the propriety of this arrangement. 
Var. 2. Distinguished by the pale green colour of its panicle and culm. 
Hort. Gram. 
F. Cambrica. Huds. With, to Ed. 7. F. rubra (3. Sm. On the highest hills 
about Llanberris, plentifully; and on Crib y Ddescil. Mr. Griffith.* 
Var. 3. Perhaps not to be distinguished even as a permanent variety from 
the preceding. Sinclair describes it as having awns longer, panicle 
branches and spikets smoother; spikets shining, root scarcely creep¬ 
ing, root-leaves much longer. 
Hort. Gram. 
F. glabra. Lightf. With, to Ed. 7. F. rubra y. Sm. Found at Ardbig- 
land, in Galloway, by Mr. Lightfoot. 
Var. 4. Glaucous. F. glauca. Winch Guide 1102. F. rubra S. Sm. On 
the sea-coast of Northumberland and Durham. 
Creeping Fescue Grass. Welsh: Peisgwellt ymdanawl. F. rubra. Linn. 
Sm. Willd. Schrad. F. duriuscula (3. Hook. In mountainous pastures, 
on alpine precipices, and sandy sea-coast, both in England and Scotland. 
P. July. E.) 
(F. praten'sis. Panicle diffused, branched; spikets strap-shaped, 
many-flowered; florets cylindrical, awnless ; nectary four-cleft; 
root fibrous. 
Gram. Pasc. — Curt. — Hort. Gram. — E. Bot. 1592— Mus.Rust. iv.2— Scheuch. 
4. 6.— Leers 8. 6. 
ting. Salisbury. Mr. Sinclair describes it as one of the best of the fine or dwarf¬ 
growing grasses, and says it attains to the greatest perfection when combined with 
Festuca pratensis and Poa trivialis. Hares prefer it to many other grasses. When cul¬ 
tivated on poor siliceous, or thin heath soil, the culms become very fine and slender, 
and promise to be valuable to the straw-plat manufacturer. As affording a strong 
example of the persevering endeavours that plants exert to maintain existence, is the 
peculiar appearance of the present species, gathered on the Malvern Hills, (see PI. iii. 
in the Journal of a Naturalist), and which, as therein described, having been con¬ 
stantly eaten down by cattle, has never thrown up flowering stems, giving out only 
radicle leaves. These appear to have been cropped short as soon as they have sprung 
up, the less succulent and strawy portions only being left, like a ball upon the 
surface, as a bush constantly clipped by the gardener’s shears. The root appears to 
have annually increased, though the upper parts it was destined to nourish have been 
destroyed, until it became a lock of closely compacted fibres, like a tuft of hair, six or 
eight inches in length. Vide also Ulex europtzus, as presenting a like appearance with 
these grass balls. E.) 
* (This grass is much inferior to F. duriuscula, both in the quantity of produce, and 
in nutrient qualities. Hort. Gram. E.) 
