Grasses 



.6 7 



palet and flowering glume apart, so that the 

 stamens can dangle out to the wind, and the 

 pistil can reach abroad for pollen. 



And by thus making themselves useful in a new 

 capacity the superseded petals have 

 saved their lives. 



Had they been less versatile they 

 might have shared the fate of some 

 sedge petals, which have shrivelled 

 and shrunk to the vanishing point. 



When the pistil has been fertil- 

 ized, the flowering glume and palet 



close together again and form a pro- 



FIG. 41. Single 

 tective covering for the ripening fruit, flower of a grass, 



showing two ves- 



The ovary has but one ovule, so tigial petals, three 



stamens, and 



this fruit contains but one seed, ovary with two 



plume-like styles. 



It is wrapped in two coats, as seeds 



generally are, and outside these are three more coats, 



which constitute the envelopes of the fruit. 



The whole affair is known to botany as a 

 " caryopsis," and to the general public as a grain 

 (Fig. 42). The innermost integument clings tight- 

 ly to the seed, and each succeeding one adheres 

 to the one beneath it. They peel off with diffi- 

 culty, still clinging together, so that the grain ap- 

 pears to have a single tough skin. 



