FLOWERS, THEIR STRUCTURE AND KINDS 



177 



corn. This is the pistil of the flower. The thread of silk is the 

 style and the young grain of corn is the ovary. If the surface of 

 the silky threads is examined with a hand lens for some distance 

 over the portion which extends outside of the husks, numerous 

 short hairs will be seen. These serve to hold the pollen 

 grains. It is easy to see that when the pollen grain germi- 

 nates the tube must travel a long distance to reach the egg cell 

 in the ovule. 



2S2. There is a cluster of delicate white membranous scales 

 which envelop each ovary at this stage, so that only the tip of 

 the ovary, where the style is attached, is ex- 

 posed. In the ripe 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 mem- 

 branous bracts. Here it will be seen that the 

 two outermost 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 palet 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 palet and flowering glume of 

 the sterile flower (compare oat flowers, figs. 128 to 132). 



283. The corn is a representative of the 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 XXXVIII. 



12 



Fig. 132. 



Flower of oat, show- 

 ing the upper palet, 

 *, behind and the two 

 lodicules, /, in front, 

 st, stamens pi, plu- 

 mose style. 



