LIFE HISTORIES OF FAMILIAR PLANTS 



The stamens remain three, probably because 

 they hang outside the flowers, and having plenty 

 of space for development there is little or no 

 occasion for suppression. The ovary is only one- 

 celled, but above it are two feathery stigmas, these 

 indicating that once there were two cells ; and 

 just as one cell has entirely disappeared leaving 

 only its stigma to record its former existence, so 

 we may assume that the third one, together with 

 its stigma, has been crushed out of existence still 

 earlier in the history of the plant. 



To deal with so large and controvertible a 

 subject as the grasses in a brief chapter presents 

 many difficulties. I trust, however, that I have 

 written enough here to serve my present purpose 

 in showing that this great group of plants, which 

 numbers between three and four thousand species, 

 over one hundred of which are British, consists, 

 like the orchids, of highly evolved types of some 

 hly-like ancestor. I say ^^ highly evolved types" 

 advisedly because, although the grasses have 

 become degraded from their original form, yet 

 they have made considerable progress as a family 

 in other directions ; indeed, they have carried 

 adaptations for wind-fertilisation to their highest 

 perfection, and consequenth% they have become 

 possessors of vast tracts of land all over the world. 

 Their slender waving structures and hardy consti- 

 tution, together with their perfect methods of wind- 

 fertilisation, allow them to pioneer new districts 

 largely irrespective of climate, and, of course 

 entirely without dependence upon insect allies. 



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