FESTUCA BROMOIDES.{ Spec. Plant.
Earlier Fescue.
Spec. Char. Panicle short, and generally bowed} spikets pointing in one direction, and
innjining upwards} arista as long or longer than the floret valve.
Festuca bromoides is far from being an uncommon plant, but is most generally found in sandy
soils, or in dry rocky stations, where its usual stature is six or seven inches, but if the soil be moist,
or contain any quantity o f richer earth, its altitude is much increased, it then often attaining the
height of nearly.two feet. The leaves are generally (as is customary with plants vegetating in dry
situations) rolled up, and a little scored on the inner side: the lower part o f the spike is branched,
with three or four spiculae on the footstalk, and generally expanded, but the upper part, consisting
of two rows o f spikets, remains compact, diverging but little, and inclining upwards. The first
sunny days o f spring warming the thin soil in which this Fescue delights to vegetate, brings it forward
about the end of May, but its existence is of no long duration, and it fades away, or only partially
remains in the beginning of July.
A, a Spiket.
B, the Calyx.
C, the valves o f the Floret.