Explanation 
of plate. 
Botanical 
description. 
Name. 
114 
XXII. Awnless brome grass. 
Bromus inermis, Leysser. 
Fig. A. Entire plant in flower. 
1. Spikelet before flowering. 
2. Lower pale, dorsal surface. 
9. False fruit, ventral surface (the two lines lo the right indicate the maximum and minimum 
? 
natural size), 
h. False fruit, dorsal surface, 
5, False fruit, side-view. 
6. Caryopsis, ventral surface (the two lines to the right indicate the maximum and minimum 
natural size). . 
7. Caryopsis, dorsal surface. 
8. Caryopsis, side-view. 
9. Transverse section of a lateral shoot (two entire leaf-sheaths and two rolled blades). 
10. Transverse section of the blade of a culm leaf from the midrib to the margin. 
14. The ligule. 
Bromus inermis is entirely a stoloniferous grass. All its branches are extra-vaginal and form 
long, underground, root-bearing stolons (fig, A). The aerial portions of the branches thus stand separate 
from one another. 
The smooth culm has a height of from one to four feet, and is abundantly provided with leaves. 
The Jeaf- sheaths are entire and glabrous (fig. 9). The blade, nearly three — fourths of an inch 
broad, has conyolute vernation (fig. 9), and is usually spread out horizontally, On a transverse section 
(fig. 10) a projecting midrib is seen, and to the right and left six or seven weaker lateral ribs which, 
like the midrib, project on the lower surface, The bast portions of the bundles, constituting the larger 
veins, extend from the lower to the upper epidermis. Other veins, lying between these, are less 
strongly marked, and have little or no bast im connection with them. The upper surface of the blade 
shows shallow longitudinal furrows which correspond lo the veins. The epidermis on the raised parts 
between the furrows is composed of »Bulliform cells« (fig. 10). The ligule is short, truncate, and 
finely toothed (fig, 41). 
The panicle has widely spreading branches. The spikelets are large, slender and over an inch im 
length; the colour is reddish brown, with hight green strips (fig. 1). The lower pales are five-ribbed; 
towards the apex, the margins are broad, transparent, and membranous; the apex itself two-toothed and 
awnless (fig. 2), or, at times, a short awn may de developed, The anthers are orange yellow. 
The false fruit (figs. 3 to 5) is quite flat, and from 10 to 13 mm. long, The lower pale ts flat, 
except at the base, where it becomes curved round, so as to overlap the margins of the upper pale. 
The upper pale adheres so closely to the caryopsis that the hilum forms a projecting midrib on the 
pale (fig. 3). The stalk is short, covered with stiff bristles, and about one fourth the length of the false fruit. 
The caryopsis (figs. 6 to 8) is 6 to 10 mm. long, quite flat, acute at its ends, and covered with hair at the 
apex. It can only be separated from the adhering pale by boiling in water. Its ventral surface is then 
seen to be almost flat, with a shallow median furrow from which the hilum projects as a rib (fig. 6).— 
From the dorsal surface it appears flat or slightly concave (fig. 7), from the side somewhat wary (fig. 8). 
Awnless brome grass is sometimes spoken of as Hungarian brome or Hungarian fodder grass because 
it is extensively cultivated in Hungary. It is sometimes improperly called giant brome, but the true 
giant brome (Bromus giganteus, L., is quite another grass*). At times, it is called »couch brome« 
because it has the creeping, stoloniferous mode of growth of the common couch grass (Triticum repens). 
*) Bromus giganteus, L., grows usually in woods. It pales have very long awns, This grass has no agricultural 
importance. 
