GRASSES AND SEDGES 123 
and pistils, which have received the name of “ lodicules,” 
and are supposed to stand for the corolla. This raises a 
very interesting point for the Evolutionist. Are we to 
suppose that our grasses are the first step upward in 
flowering plants, and that these tiny scales are the 
germs from which the gay corollas of lilies, orchids, 
and the like have sprung; or are we to think, as some 
do, that they are their degenerate representatives ? 
Although we do not find our “floral envelopes” in grass 
flowers, you yourselves know that the essential parts are 
not left unprotected, for an ear of 
wheat will show us that there is a 
good deal upon the flower-stalk besides 
mere stamens and pistils. At this 
stage of flowering plants, bracts play 
a great part, and if we take the 
aristocratic wheat as the type of the 
group, we shall get some idea of their 
arrangement. Each spikelet on the 
ear branches a little, and bears two 
or three flowers at the tips of the 
branches. At the base of the spikelet are two bracts, 
which have small sterile flowers where they join the 
flowering stem. These bracts are called in the grasses 
glumes. Going up the tiny branchlets, we find another 
bract, called the pale. The mid-rib of this is often 
prolonged into a long stiff point, which is called the 
awn. This awn is very clearly seen in the Bearded 
Wheat or Rivetts, which you may see cultivated on 
many of our farms, especially in the Midlands. Still 
climbing up, we come upon another bract, to which the 
flowers themselves are attached, and this is called the 
flowering pale. In some kinds of grass, eg. Barley and 
WHEAT FLOWER, 
