FESTUCA PRATENSIS.| Hudson's Flora Ang.
Curtis’s Flora Lona.
Festuca elatior, Sp. Plant.
Meadow Fescue.
Spec. Char. Panicle expanding, branched} florets without arista} leaves broad, and rough.
Festuca pratensis, though found in most low lands, yet chiefly delights in soils inclining to be
boggy or peaty} its panicle appears towards the end of summer, and continues till destroyed by the .
frosts of winter, rendering itself conspicuous by its size, overtopping the companions of its growth.
The panicle is generally expanded, and much coloured} the.inner valve of the corolla is usually
extended a little'beyond the outer one} the foliage in dry seasons rolls inwards.---------The Meadow
Fescue at times becomes very luxuriant, and attains a large size, nor in those circumstances are the
valves of the corolla much coloured, and we often find it with ten or more florets in each spicula:
in that state it is possibly the variety known under the name of Festuca elatior.
Meadow Fescue is a harsh coarse grass, and though very productive in radical herbage, yet from
the roughness of its foliage is disliked by cattle, or eaten only in the deficiency of the better grasses:
in low lands which have been drained or ameliorated, it becomes something improved} and loses a
little of its roughness, and in those cases alone is perhaps not an unuseful grass, where quantity is
required, and quality little heeded} in very dry seasons it retains its verdure, and continues to vegetate
when the pasture grasses have been crisped up, or ceased to grow.—— This grass was assuredly not
introduced into cultivation, but is an intruder in our meadow lands, or perhaps is the remains of the
original herbage which the soil produced, before it was reclaimed from the first possessing variety of
vegetation, and, from the deep hold its strong roots secured in the earth, yet retains its station.
There is a variety of this plant, but not commonly found, in which a very fine arista arises from
the larger valve o f the corolla, about half its length, and the valve with about five ribs: it seems to
hold an intermediate station between the Bromus giganteus (Festuca gigan. Lin. Tran.) and the Festuca
pratensis (E, the Corolla and its larger valve) .-——The larger radical leaves of F. pratensis are divided
by a prominent mid-rib, visible only on the outer surface, one side of which is perfectly smooth, and
a considerable portion of the other rough! (D)
A, the Calyx.
B, the Corolla.
C, tire inner valve of the Corolla enlarged, to shew the edges bending back.