3 L w ' J
F E S TUC A duriufcula.
Hard Fefcue-grafs.
T R I A N D R I A Digynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. of a valves. Spikelet oblong, fome-
what cylindrical, with fharp-pointed glumes.
Spec. Char. Panicle pointing one way, oblong,
branched. Florets about fix, nearly cylindrical,
awned. Stem-leaves flat. Root fibrous.
Syn. Feftuca duriufcula. Linn. Sp. PI. 108. Hudf.
44. With. 153. Relh. 40. Sibth. 44.
Gramen pratenfe, panicula duriore laxa, unam partem
fpedtante. Raii Syn. 4-13. t. 19. ƒ. 1.
/3. Feftuca dumetorum. Linn. Sp.Pl. 109. With. 154.
A COMMON grafs every where in paftures, meadows, and
wafte ground, flowering about midfummer.
Root fibrous, perennial. Herbage of a full darkifh green.
Straws a foot or more in height, ered, leafy. Leaves upright,
roughifti: the lower ones flender, rigid, acute, comprefled,
ftriated, their bafe completely fheathing the ftraw, with fcarcely
any perceptible ftipula. Upper leaves broader and flat. Panicle
erect, a little zigzag, alternately branched, the branches
all leaning one way, the lower ones fubdivided and molt
fpreading. Flower-ltalks all fharply angular, and rough.
Spikelets at firft cylindrical, but by the florets fpreading they
become flattened, often reddilh. Calyx of two unequal, cari-
nated, (harp-pointed hulks. Florets from 4 to 6, the upper-
molt generally abortive, all fixed (a little remotely) to an angular
zigzag (talk. Outer hufk of the corolla ftrongly awned,
the inner one fmaller, more delicate and beardlefs. The
angles of both are minutely ciliated, or downy; and fometimes
the outer hulk, as well as the calyx, is all over clothed with
foft pubefcence, which makes the charader of Linnaeus’s
F. dumetorum j nor can we, in his own fpecimens, find any other
mark than this, which is a variable one, to diftinguifti thefe
two fuppofed fpecies. Indeed, his fpecimens of F. duriufcula
are fome of them downy. The fwelling in the ftraw, juft
above the joints, defcribed in his F. dumetorum, feems an accidental
difeafe. What Linnaeus calls a neEtarium in thefe and
moft other grades, is a white cloven membrane clofe to the
germen. ^ _ ,£ > .
The intelligent Mr. Swayne mentions this as a valuable grats,
fpringing early, being acceptable to all kinds of cattle, growing
in moft good meadows and paftures, and yielding a good crop.