THE GRASSES. 49 



leaves ; this is called the glume, as well as the second 

 envelope, consisting also of two leaves, but in the 

 situation of the calyx, as the other is in that of the co- 

 rolla. There is a circumstance in the Maize, how- 

 ever, which is almost peculiar in this family ; it belongs 

 to the class Moncecia ; the upper being barren sta- 

 miniferous flowers, without styles ; the lower aggre- 

 gated together in a covered spike, are alone fertile and 

 styliferous ; in the genus Zea, likewise, the styles are 

 undivided, and only one to each grain, but the whole 

 cluster contained in the ear, which is so remarkably 

 long as to be called silk, are exserted or come out to 

 the light from all parts of the spike to receive the ne- 

 cessary influence of the aura of the pollen or fertilizing 

 powder. This pollen may be observed to fall, at times, 

 almost in a shower from the staminiferous panicle, and 

 consists of spherical grains, nearly as large as the 

 eggs of a moth, which necessarily gravitate towards 

 the lower part of the plant. But how minute the sub- 

 stance necessary to stimulate to life the preexisting 

 germ must be, in this, and perhaps all plants, is suffi- 

 ciently obvious in the Maize, of whose grain there are 

 several varieties in size, consistence, and color ; for, if 

 only a single plant of a deep coloured variety be suf- 

 fered to grow in a field with the white or yellow kind, 

 an extensive circle of plants which grew in its vicinity 

 apparently unaltered, will, from their seed, often pro- 

 duce individuals bearing deep colored (say red or 

 purple) ears, or grains of some different variety mixed 

 with the ordinary kind, by which the previous parent, 

 though growing at a distance, had been influenced. 

 Nor does the structure of the long and silk-like style 

 present the possibility of an internal passage to the 

 germ of any thing large and gross enough to come 

 under the cognizance of vision, even aided with the 

 most powerful magnifiers. We perceive then here, in 

 5 



