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F E S T U C A ovina.
Sheep's F efcu e-grafs.
T R IA N D R IA Digynia.
G en. C h ar. Cal. o f 2 valves. Spikelet oblong, fome-
what cylindrical, with fharp-pointed glumes.
Spec. C har. Panicle pointing one way, clofe. F lorets
roundifh, fmooth at their bafe. Straw fquare,
Leav.es briftle-rtiaped, rough.
S yn . Fed yea ovina. Linn. Sp. PI. 108. Hudf. 44-
With. 152. Relh. 40. Sihth. 43. Mart. Fl. Ruß.
t. 1.02.
ß . F. rubra. With. 153, not o f Linn.
y. F.. tenuifolia. Sibth. 44. With. 155.
Gramen capillaceum, loeuftellis pennatis, non
ariftatis. Ran Syn. 410.
A C O M M O N grafs in dry expofed paflures, flowering ip
June, and fuppofed by Linnaeus, Stillingfleet and others to be
a peculiarly excellent food for fheep. Thofe who have recommended
it for a crop of hay have probably miftaken for it the
F. duriufcula, t. 470, which thrives much more by culture,
and yields a far greater produce. The fquare ftem of F. ovina
diftinguifhes them at once without any other mark ; the mi-
crofcopic Ix.ianift may recur to the perfeAly fmooth-edged
inner valve of the corolla, which in F. duriufcula is finely
fringed.
Root perennial, compofisd of black fmooth fibres. Straws a
fpan high, flender, rigid, mod evidently fquare in the upper
part, fmooth. Leaves briftly, rough, often glaucous, their
fheathfc fmooth, Abated. Stipula very flhort. Panicle fliort
and fmall. Florets 4 or 5 ]n each fpikelet, roundifli, fcarcely
comprefled or carinated, without ribs, fmooth at the bafe,
Tough with minute points in the upper part, generally beard-
lefs as in the variety y, but often more or lefs awned as in our
figure and the Linnsean fpecimens. Awns rough. The leaves
being eredt and pliable, or incurved and fomewhat rigid, is
not characleriftic of either variety, fo that we cannot adopt
) Dr. Sibthorp’s tenuifolia as a fpecies. The rubra of Withering
proves by an original fpecimen to be a purphfli variety
only, very diflindt from the rubra of Linnaeus and Hudfon,
which indeed is fcarcely red at all.