P L A T E C XIX .
FESTUCA REPENS.|f™ S S £ , t F estuca dumetorum, Sp. Plant.
Creeping Fescue.
(V A R IE T Y OP F . DURIUSCtTLA. )
T a . epithets o f colour, when attached to plants, have been the occasion o f many erroneous conceptions,
and for the Festnca rubra o f Liunatus every red variety o f F. duriuscula has been collected; and
tf we attend to the specific names of plants, when they express colour, we shall, in more instances
«ran one, find ourselves the dupes o f an evanescent property.------Amidst the loose sands on several
of our sea shores we find the Festnca here represented, generally to be distinguished by its long and
creeping roots; its colour varies from a glaucous green to dingy red: leaves narrow, flat, and scored
on the inner side, and a little woolly, as are the cauline leaves o f F. duriuscula. Festnca repens. is
not however peculiar to the vicinity o f the sea, but vegetates in alpine regions; upon the Mofiat hills,
Dumfries, it is plentiful, agreeing in all respects with the maritime plant, excepting simple deviations,
the probable effect o f situation, and we have commonly observed this alpine plant to be genic,1-tod
attire lower joint. The corolla of the creeping Fescue is at times smooth, and at others, both on
the mountains and on the shores, covered with long wool, an accidental occurrence, but possibly
constitutes the F. dumetorum o f the Spec. Plantarum.
Festnca cambrics, from Snowdon, upon examination, appears not to differ essentially from F. re-
^ p j l is M g S « - e is a greater inequality in the valves o f
Festnca glabra, o f Lightfoot, is possibly different from either; the smoothness o f the calyx valves
and the small number o f florets in the spicula, and other deviations, seem to entitle it to a separate
consideration j but we have never seen the piant of Mr. Lightfoot.
Unwilling a, w e should be to puzzle science, by captiously augmenting, or lightly curtailing the
Flora o f our country, yet when we are fully aware o f the influence of situation upon plants' we
cannot help considering the F. rubra and F. cambrica as only varieties o f Festnca duriuscula; differing
chiefly in the repent root: we know that vegetables will exert singular powers to maintain existence,
and the roots o f F. duriuscula may become creeping on tire sandy shores, to enable it to draw mois'
turn, and seek subsistence in depths to su p p o r ts , which could not be obtained by a fihreus-rooted
plant. It may become repent likewise on the mountains, from the shallowness o f the soil, affording
too little nutriment without an extension of the root to, collect it from a more enlarged surface.
A, the Calyx.
B, the Corolla.
C, the Corolla of the tomentose variety.
D, the Calyx o f F. cambrica.
REGARDING