FLOWERS, THEIR STRUCTURE AND KINDS 163 



ear of corn these form the chaff, which mostly remains on the cob 

 when the corn is shelled. This cluster of chaff with the pistil 

 corresponds to the spikelet, and in fact is a spikelet with two 

 flowers, one fertile and one sterile, the sterile one lying below 

 the fertile one. It is not a very easy matter to 

 dissect out these parts to determine them, since 

 they are soft, delicate, and some of them much 

 plaited and folded. But in flowers where the 

 grains are about one-fifth grown they can be teased 

 out so that one can make out the membranous 

 bracts. Here it will be seen that the two outer- 

 most ones are the empty glumes of the two flowers. 

 Between one of the empty glumes and the grain 

 of corn is the flowering glume, and the palea of 

 this fertile flower is on the other side of the grain 

 of corn. The two scales between this and the 

 empty glume of the sterile flower are the palea 

 and flowering glume of the sterile flower (compare Flg - I2 3- 



Flower of oat, 



Oat flowers, figS. IIO tO 123). showing the upper 



palet behind and 



269. The corn is a representative of the the two lodkuies 



in front. 



Monocotyledons making up the great family of 

 grasses (Gramineae), including many valuable economic plants as 

 the grasses, cereals, sorghum, sugar cane, etc. For this study see 

 Chapter XXXVI. 



Jack-in-the- Pulpit, Indian Turnip. 

 (Arisczma triphyllum.} 



270. The Indian turnip inhabits moist, shady woods or groves, 

 and flowers from April to June. Its underground perennial 

 stem is a corm (paragraph 74) which is very acrid to the taste. The 

 annual flowering shoot is formed in the bud at the apex of the corm 

 during autumn and winter. The plants are about 30 cm. (i foot) 

 high. The leaves are divided into three leaflets. The flower 

 shoot is very odd and interesting. It is in the form of a spadix, 

 a cylindrical structure, the free end sterile and with the small 

 imperfect (either staminate or pistillate) flowers crowded around 



