CHAPTER XII 
MORPHOLOGY OF THE FLORAL ORGANS 
THE floral organs of phanerogams are known to be 
highly differentiated or specialized shoots, the receptacle 
representing a stem, and the stamens and pistils repre- 
senting greatly modified leaves. In the grasses the 
flowers are nearly always devoid of floral envelopes, the 
calyx and corolla being absent or represented only by the 
lodicules. The flower then is reduced to the essential 
organs, the stamens and pistil, the protection usually 
afforded by the floral envelopes being here afforded 
by bracts. 
THE INFLORESCENCE OR FLOWER-CLUSTER 
142. The flowers of grasses are usually segregated 
upon distinct shoots that are easily distinguished from the 
foliage-shoots or the foliage portion of a shoot. These 
aggregations of flowers constitute the inflorescence. 
An inflorescence is always terminal upon the shoot, and 
commonly these shoots are the main foliage-shoots of the 
plant, as in wheat, blue-grass, timothy and sorghum. In 
addition to the inflorescence terminating the main culm 
and leafy branches, others may arise from the axils of the 
leaves. Such lateral inflorescences are, of course, terminal 
upon lateral branches, but since such branches bear no 
foliage-leaves the inflorescences are said to be lateral or 
axillary. In some grasses such as bamboos, bamboo- 
panicums, and less commonly in herbaceous genera, the 
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