CHAPTER VIII. 
THE FRUIT AND SEED. 
THE stigma of an ordinary grass consists of two divari- 
cating plume-like structures composed of thin-walled cells. 
When the palew open these stigmatic plumes protrude, 
one on either side, and readily catch pollen shed from the 
dangling stamens and carried by the wind, and since the 
pollen of the same flower is usually shed at a time when 
the stigmas of many neighbouring plants are mature, 
there is every opportunity for cross-fertilisation. (Fig. 33.) 
In some cases, however, e.g. Anthoxanthum, Alopecurus, 
the flowers are proterogynous, the stigmatic plumes being 
ready for pollination some time before the pollen is shed 
from the anthers of the same flower; whereas in most of 
our grasses the pollen begins to scatter before the stigmas 
are ready (protandrous). Among exotic grasses, many are 
dicecious or moncecious—ie. the flowers contain stamens 
only or ovary only, on each plant, or on different inflores- 
cences of the same plant respectively—and even in our 
own Holcus and Arrhenatherum this state of affairs is 
partially represented, since one flower of the spikelet is 
male only. 
In some grasses, e.g. Rye, however, it appears im- 
