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 EngUsh 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 require 

 a heavy, good soil but thrives on loose and comparatively poor land 



