82 FODDER AND PASTURE PLANTS. 
AWNLESS BROME GRASS (Bromus inermis Leyss). 
Plate 13; Seed, Plate 27, Fig. 23. 
Other Latin name: Schedonurus inermis (Leyss) Beauv. 
Other English names: Brome Grass, Smooth Brome Grass, Hungarian 
Brome Grass, Hungarian Fodder Grass, Aus- 
trian Brome Grass, Austrian Brome Hay. 
Botanical description: Awnless Brome Grass is perennial 
with a creeping rootstock which produces numerous scaly runners. 
These are a kind of underground stems, the leaves of which are 
reduced to mere scales. They are much branched, root at the joints 
and produce numerous upright stems of the ordinary type. The 
runners being long and widely creeping, the upright stems produced 
from them are scattered and the plants are therefore not tufted but 
form loose mats. This is especially the case in light, loose soil. 
The stems are numerous and rather stout. They are from one to 
four feet high and carry many spreading leaves. These are long 
and broad, smooth, and vary from light to dark green. The panicle 
is generally large with branches spreading in all directions. After 
flowering it usually becomes narrow and sometimes one-sided with 
nodding branches. The spikelets, which are about an inch long, 
are generally brownish-red when old. One spikelet contains seven to 
nine flowers, each enclosed by two more or less blunt glumes. The 
grass is called Awnless Brome because the outer glume of the flower 
has no awn, although occasionally forms are found which have 
awned glumes, like most other species of the genus. 
Geographical distribution: Awnless Brome Grass is a native 
of central Europe and Asia, extending from Holland and France to 
China. Although its range of distribution is very wide, the wild 
form occurs in rather scattered localities. In recent years, however, 
it has been introduced in a great number of places and is now fairly 
common in practically all European countries. It was introduced 
into Canada about twenty years ago and is widely distributed, es- 
pecially in the Prairie Provinces. 
Habitat: It grows naturally in dry, gravelly places, on river- 
banks and hills, along borders of woods, etc., and more rarely in 
meadows. 
Cultural conditions: Awnless Brome Grass does not reouire 
a heavy, good soil but thrives on loose and comparatively poor land 
