FESTUCA vivipara.
Viviparous Fescue-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. C har. Cal. of 2 valves. Spikelet oblong, some»
what cylindrical, two-ranked, with sharp-pointed
glumes.
Spec. Char. Panicle pointing one way, crowded. Florets
compressed, keeled, beardless, rather downy as
well as the calyx. Stem square. Leaves bristleshaped,
smooth.
Syn. Festuca vivipara. Sm. FI. Brit. 114.
F. ovina (3. Linn. Sp. PL 108. Huds. 44. Lightf. 101. With. 152, var. 4.
Gramen sparteum montanum, spied foliacea graminea,
majus et minus. Rail Syn. 410. t. 22, f . 1 .
I t has been usual to consider this as a variety o f Festuca
twina, see v. g. t. 585, but a very slight comparison of their
flowers will surely justify their being kept distinct. The plant
before us is found only about the cloud-capt summits of the
loftiest mountains. W e have dried specimens from Scotland,
Wales, and Westmoreland, and the recent garden one drawn
in the annexed plate exactly agrees with them. The panicle is
produced in July. The root is perennial.
The stems and leaves scarcely differ from those of the
common ovina, except that the latter are quite smooth. The
panicle is upright, for the most part simply branched, the
tranches leaning one way, angular and rough. Spikelets
erect, ovate, compressed, generally clothed with short soft
pubescence. Florets 4, 5 or more, lanceolate, pointed, not
awned, angular, ribbed, closely imbricated, in which last particular
they essentially differ from the species just named. A
few of the uppermost florets are mostly viviparous, their
glumes being elongated into leaves, and the place, of their
fructification supplied by a leafy bud, which on falling to the
ground becomes a plant, as happens in Poa alpina and some
other mountain grasses.