THE QUAKE-GRASS 



the petals generally consist of two other minute 

 and almost obsolete scales, called lodicules ; for 

 petals are no longer needed. The stamens are 

 usually three in number, one whorl being com- 

 pletely aborted ; in some species the two whorls 

 still remain, and in others one stamen from the re- 

 maining whorl disappears, leaving only two. The 

 ovary is one-celled but bears two feathery stigmas. 

 In Fig. 90 (Plate 64) appears a dissected flower 

 from one of the spikelets of the quake-grass, and 

 the pair of feathery stigmas and the three stamens 

 together in one of the pales are there distinctly 

 shown. 



The flowers of grasses, therefore, now show 

 very little of their original trinary arrangement, 

 only the stamens keeping up a full three ; never- 

 theless, there are many reasons for assuming that 

 at one time they had all their whorls arranged in 

 threes similar to those of the hlies of to-day. One 

 of the two pales of the quake-grass even now bears 

 two distinct midribs, showing that it was originally 

 two ; thus the calyx must have consisted of three 

 sepals. Even the lodicules (the rudiments of the 

 primitive petals), although often so minute as to be 

 detected only by careful observation with the aid of 

 the microscope — when represented at all in British 

 grasses, — are only two in number, the third having 

 been entirely crushed out in the smaller flowers, 

 yet in the larger flowers of the bamboos (which 

 are tall, exotic grasses) the three petals still remain 

 entire. Thus we have direct evidence of these 

 parts still existing in a large group of grasses. 



147 



