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tiie spikelet, that it is rounded and has no angles — " filiform" At the 

 base cut off the short chaffy husk a, and then cut off b (See figs, in C), 

 these are technically called glumes. Then come two flowers, cut off 

 the lower one, and open it : the large husk is the third glume, and the 

 smaller which fits tightly like a lid, over the flower in the glume is 

 called a palea. There are three stamens only, sometimes none. The 

 flower at the top of the spikelet has also a glume and palea, both with 

 fine lines marked across them ; this flower has both stamens and pistil 

 and is called the fertile flower, as it yields the seed. Note that it is 

 rounded on one side, flat on the oiher, and that the styles are distinct 

 with plumose stigmas. 



At the base of the ovary are two small bodies called " lodicules". 

 When the flower ia ready to open, these lodicules swell ap and force 

 open the glume and palea (C. 9, 10). Then the stalks or " filaments' 

 of the stamens grow very rapidly, carrying the anthers out beyond 

 the glumes into the air. While the anthers were still concealed with- 

 in the glumes, no pollen was discharged, but as soon as they are placed 

 outside the glumes by the growth of the filaments, each lobe of the 

 anther begins to split along a line running down it, and discharge 

 the pollen. The anther is balanced at one point at the end of the fila- 

 ment {versatile), so that it turns easily at every breath of wind which 

 carries off the pollen, and scatters it on the stigmas of other flowers 

 on the panicle. 



Guinea Grass is one of our very tall grasses, often reaching from 6' 

 to 10 feet high. 



Its botanical name is Panicum maximum. 



Bahama Grass. 



The stem of Bahama Grass is prostrate, creeping, with upright, 

 leafy flowering branches, 4 to 8 or 10 inches high. The roots spring 

 from the nodes of the creeping stem. 



The blade of the leaf is short, flat, narrow, rough on both surfaces, 

 and the margin. In the young leaf it may be noticed that the two 

 halves of the blade are folded flat against one another (conduplicate). 

 The ligule is very short, but has long bristly hairs. The sheath is 

 split. 



The spikelets (fig. B. 1) have no stalks as they have in Guinea Grass, 

 but are arranged in two rows along one side of a common flower-stalk. 

 There are generally four of these stalks radiating from the top of an 

 upright stem. 



When the two lower empty glumes are removed from the base, a 

 small bristle will be observed, which looks like the stalk for another 

 flower which has not developed. The third glume and its palea en- 

 close a fertile flower with three stamens, and an ovary with two dis- 

 tinct styles and plumose stigmas. The figure B. 9 shows the two lo- 

 dicules opposite to the palea. In figure B. 4 the flower is older than the 

 rest, and the stalks or filaments of the stamens have lengthened so that 

 the anthers are now hanging quite outside the flower, and the pollen 

 will be dusted by the wind over the stigmas of other flowers near by. 



Sugar Cane. 



The spikelet of the Sugar Cane (fig. A.) appears at first sight to be 

 composed of one empty glume (A. 4), then a flowering glume (A. 5) 



