CHAP. I. 



BROME GRASSES. 



923 



and temporary leys, though but rarely found in old pastures. It sheds 

 its seed in June, and is thereby enabled to maintain its position in the 

 hayfield. Its spikelets are covered with short hair, which serves to 

 distinguish it from the smooth brome grass (Bromus raceinosus, L. 

 fig. 426) that frequently grows beside it. Barren brome grass (Bromus 

 sterilis, L., fig. 427) is chiefly a roadside grass, and lurks beneath 

 fences and hedgerows ; its spikelets are darkish, flattened, and long- 

 awned. Hairy brome grass (Bromus asper, Murr., fig. 428), another 

 denizen of the hedgerows, is the tallest of the bromes, often towering 

 above the tops of the hedges. It has a large drooping panicle with 

 nodding spikelets, and the stem is densely clothed with coarse hairs 

 pointing downwards. Upright brome grass (Bromus erectus. Huds. 



Fig. 427. Barren Brome Grass. 



Broinus sterilis. 



Fig. 428. Hairy Brome Grass. 



Bromus asper. 



fig. 429) is a short-awned grass found in fields, but chiefly in waste 

 places, upon chalky soils. In the United States Bromus mollis is 

 known as Soft Chess, and Bromus racemosus as Upright Chess. 



COUCH GKASS (Triticum repens, L.) is characteristically a weed of 

 arable land, and its presence in permanent grass lands need only be 

 looked for during the first year or two of their existence. Its vigorous 

 underground stem grows with great rapidity, and sends forth roots and 

 shoots at such frequent intervals that one plant is capable of speedily 

 infesting a large area. The branching of the underground stem results 

 in a network, forming a bed or couch, in allusion to which the plant 

 probably received its name of couch grass. The labour of cleaning land 

 from couch is chiefly directed to removing these troublesome under- 

 ground stems, if they are merely cut up and left in the ground, each 

 fragment will commence to grow as an independent plant. In Italy 

 these stems, which are juicy, sweet, and nourishing, are collected, 

 washed, and sold as food for horses. Couch grass in ear may often be 

 found in the hedgerows of arable fields. The spikelets have no stalks ; 



