THE FLOWER AND THE BEE 



are a golden yellow, and the elms display great masses of red- 

 dish-purple blossoms. (Figs. 7 and 8.) 



Two other immense groups of plants, which are anemophilous 

 or wind-pollinated, are the grasses (Graminece) and the sedges 

 (Ci/peracece). There are some 3,000 species of sedges and 3,500 

 species of grasses; but great as is the number of species, their 

 importance consists in the myriads of individuals which cover 

 a large part of the earth's surface and provide most of the food 

 material of the human race and herbivorous animals. To the 

 grasses belong the edible cereals, corn, wheat, rye, barley, oats, 

 rice, and millet. "Next to the importance," says Ingalls, 

 "of the divine profusion of water, light, and air, those great 

 physical facts which render existence possible, may be recorded 

 the universal beneficence of grass. It is the type of our life, 

 the emblem of our mortality. It bears no blazonry of bloom 

 to charm the senses with fragrance, or splendor, but its homely 

 hue is more enchanting than the lily or the rose. Should its 

 harvest fail for a single year, famine would depopulate the 

 earth." 



Most grasses have perfect or hermaphrodite flowers, and 

 self-pollination is largely prevented by the anthers and stigmas 

 maturing at different times; but Indian corn is a familiar ex- 

 ample of a grass with unisexual flowers. The spindles or 

 staminate flower-clusters terminate the stalks and are borne 

 well above the foliage, while the pistillate clusters (the ears in 

 the silk) stand much lower down, where they are more likely to 

 be cross-pollinated. A part of the sedges have perfect flowers 

 (Fig. 0), but in a large number of species {Carex) they are 

 unisexual, both fertile and sterile flowers occurring in the same 

 spike or flower-cluster, or in different spikes on the same 

 plant (Fig. 10), or more rarely on different plants. Self-fertiliza- 

 tion is not uncommon in both families. 



30 



