OTHER IMPORTANT FORAGE GRASSES 91 



The seed is light and chaffy, weighing 14 pounds to 

 the bushel. It is usually sown broadcast at the rate of 

 20 pounds per acre. 



Description. A hardy smooth erect perennial, usually 

 2 or 3 feet tall, producing strong creeping rootstocks. 

 Blades fiat, 1/5 to 1/3 inch wide, somewhat roughened, 

 bearing at the base a pair of minute auricles. Panicles 

 or flower heads 4 to 6 inches long, somewhat open and 

 spreading, the branches naked below, the lower in 

 clusters or fascicles. 



Details of the Spikelet. Spikelets about an inch long, 

 brown or purplish, 8 to 10-flowered, slightly flattened; 

 first glume narrow, acute, i-nerved, 5 mm. long, the 

 second broader and longer, obtuse, 3-nerved; lemma 5 to 

 7-nerved, the nerves scabrous, the apex awnless or with a 

 very short awn. 



Common Names. The name brome is taken from 

 Bromus, the botanical name of the genus. Other names 

 applied occasionally to the species are: awnless brome 

 grass, because the spikelets are nearly or quite awnless, 

 while many species of the genus are awned; Hungarian 

 brome grass, because it was grown in Hungary whence 

 seed was obtained for trial in this country; smooth 

 brome grass, because it is not hairy. Many farmers 

 know it by its botanical name, Bromus inermis. 



Botanical Name. Bromus inermis Leyss. The gen- 

 eric name is from the Greek name for food, and was 

 applied by the Greeks to oats. 



Linnaeus gave the name to a group of grasses now 

 known to include numerous species, both native and 

 foreign. The specific name, meaning unarmed, refers 

 to the absence of awns. 



