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F E S T U C A decidua.
Deciduous Fescue-grass.
TRIANDRIA Digynia.
G en. Char. Cal. o f 2 valves. Spikelet oblong,
somewhat cylindrical, two-ranked, with sharp-
pointed glumes.
Spec. Char. Panicle pointing one way, erect, much
branched. Florets two or three, oblong, angular,
beardless; the upper ones deciduous. Leaves
' linear, striated.
Syn . Festuca decidua. Bellardi Mss.
( x A T H E R E D last summer in Gurness Gill, on the south side
ofllowes-water, Westmoreland, by the Rev. Mr. H olme,F.L.S.
W e find his specimens agree in every point with one sent from
Piedmont in 1789, under the above name, by our worthy
friend Dr. Bellardi, with an inquiry “ whether it might be
F. sylvatica ,of Villars ? ” It certainly comes very near that
species, which is our F. calamaria, t. 1005 ; a name we preferred,
as not clashing with F. sylvatica of Hudson, our Bromus
sylvaticus, t. 729 ; but which we shall willingly resign to
Schrader’s decision in favour o f the former.
None of the eminent authors just named, any more than Haller
or Scheuchzer, as far as we can find, has adverted to the
grass before us, even as. a variety ; nor indeed did these two
great Swiss bptanists know our t. 1005.
The present is a much more humble and slender plant than
that. Leaves not above a third so broad, quite linear, tapering
to a fine point ; their ribs, furrows and rough edges agree,
as do their stipulas, the joints o f their stems, and their inflorescence.
The spikelets however are very different, consisting
o f two or three florets at most, o f which the upper one is generally
abortive, and that, as well as the second, soon falls off,
leaving the lowermost only to ripen seed. This is too regularly
the case in all our specimens to be attributed to accidental starvation,
neither does the plant seem to have a very prolific root
to account for it. How far its remarkable scales at the bottom
o f the stems are peculiar, we have not at present the means of
decidin<g3>.
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