TRIANDRIA. DIGYNIA. Festuca. 
185 
E. Bot. 2266. 
F. decidua. E. Bot. F. calamaria j3. Hook. Sm. In Gurness Gill, south 
side of Hawes-water, Westmoreland. Rev. Mr. Holme. Winch. 
Reed Fescue Grass. In a moist wooded valley at the foot of Ben 
Lawers, 1793. Mr. Mackay. Near Fort Augustus. Mr. G. Don. In 
Shrawley Wood, near Glashampton, Worcestershire, (though rarely pro¬ 
ducing a flowering stem, unless exposed to the sun, as Mr. Moseley 
observes. E.) In a wood, near Newton Barry, Ireland. Rev. Mr. Butt. 
FI. Brit. Kenmuir bank, Glasgow. Dr. Brown, in Hook. Scot. 
P. June—July. E.) 
F. flu'itans. Panicle branched, upright ,* spikets nearly sessile cy¬ 
lindrical, awnless. 
Var. 1. Fresh water. 
Curt .—( E. Bot. 1520. E.) —Leers 8. 5—Schreb. S.f. 2 — FI. Dan. 237— Stil- 
lingf. 10—H. Ox. viii. 3. 16— Ger. Em. 14. 1— J. B. ii. 490— Mus. Bust. 
iv. 1. 6— C. B. Th. 41— Park. 1275. 8 —Scheuch. 4. 5—Mont. 35. 
Straw striking root at the joints (one to three feet long. E.) Leaves float¬ 
ing flat on the water. Panicle very long, issuing from a long two-edged 
sheath. Spikets cylindrical but compressed, mostly ten-flowered. Blos~ 
som awnless. Valves with strong ribs, terminating in an equal number 
of points, these points connected together by means of a transparent 
membrane. (The small scale, or nectary, according to Smith really a 
secretory gland, at the base of the germen, being scarcely lobed, and the 
stigmas much divided, induced Mr. Brown to remove this plant to his 
genus Glyceria. E.) 
Curtis observes, that growing on land it becomes smaller in every respect, 
and that the panicle is frequently changed to a simple spike. 
Var. 2. Salt-marsh. Leaves blunt, broader, shorter, glaucous; calyx six 
or eight-flowered. 
In Salt marshes at Lymington. June. 
Float Fescue Grass. (Float Meadow Grass. Poajluitans . FI. Brit. 
Hook. Grev. F. Jluitans. Linn. Huds. Curt. Leers. Schreb. Willd. 
Purt. Glyceria Jluitans. Br. Sm. Eng. FI. E.) Wet ditches and ponds, 
common. P. June—Sept. P.* 
(4) Flowers in spikes. 
F. lolia'cea. Spike two-ranked, drooping; spikets alternate, sessile, 
compressed; florets cylindrical, awnless. E.) 
* The seeds are small, but very sweet and nourishing. They are collected in seve¬ 
ral parts of Germany and Poland, under the name of Manna Seeds, and are esteemed 
a delicacy in soups and gruels, upon account of their nutritious quality and grateful 
flavour. When ground to meal, they make bread very little inferior to that in com¬ 
mon use from wheat. The bran, separated in preparing the meal, is given to horses 
that have worms; but they must be kept from water for some hours afterwards. 
Geese are very fond of the seeds (as also smaller birds; and, according to Schreber, 
fishes, particularly trouts. E.). The plant affords nourishment to the Phakena Festucce. 
Horses and swine will run risks to get at the saccharine early young shoots. The cul¬ 
tivation, uses, &c. of this plant were made the subject of an Inaugural Dissertation by 
M. Bruz, published at Vienna, 1775. (This grass constitutes a part of the luxuriant 
herbage of the Orcheston water-meadow; but Salisbury judiciously cautions the agri¬ 
culturist not to expect such an amazing produce under circumstances less favourable, 
Sinclair reports it to be capable of cultivation as a permanent pasture grass. E.) 
