58 



GRAMINEAE (GRASS FAMILY) 



common Chess, for if allowed to have its way, it may become as 

 pernicious as that weed. 



DOWNY BROME-GRASS 

 Brdmus tectorum, L. 



Other English names: Slender Chess, Early Chess. 



Introduced. Annual or winter annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: May to July. 



Seed-time: June to August. 



Range: Massachusetts to Indiana, Colorado, Washington, Virginia, 



and Mississippi. 

 Habitat: Fields and waste places. 



The range of this weed has greatly 

 increased of late years. Its early 

 season makes it very objectionable, 

 as its seeds foul the ground before 

 any grain is ripe; the stems also 

 become rough and innutritious very 

 early in the season, so that it is a 

 damage in hay fields as well as 

 among grain. (Fig. 28.) 



Culms one to two feet tall, tufted, 

 erect, and very slender. Sheaths 

 and blades softly downy, the latter 

 flat, three to six inches long. The 

 whole plant seems slim and weak, 

 the panicle one-sided, like oats, its 

 branches slender and thread-like, the 

 spikelets pendulous ; these are nu- 

 merous, small, the glumes narrow, 

 rough-hairy; awn straight, longer 

 than the lemma. 



Means of control 



r Prevent seed production which 



FIG. 28. Downy Brome-grass means that the grass must be either 

 (Bromus tectorum). x \. cut or pulled as early as May. 



