CHAPTER VIII 



THE FLOWER : FERTILISATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE GRAIN 



IMMEDIATELY within the flowering glumes are two minute antero-lateral 

 scales, the lodifrules, which probably represent a small divided glume, 

 although they are sometimes regarded as rudimentary perianth leaves. 



They are thin and colourless, 

 about i mm. long, -J--8 mm. 

 wide near the top, and -4- -5 

 mm. at the base, with long 

 hairs on the upper margin ; at 

 the flowering period they swell 

 enormously, becoming for a 

 short time more or less spheri- 

 cal, resembling pellucid drops, 

 pushing apart the glumes and 

 exposing the stamens and 

 stigmas of the flower ; later, 

 they collapse and the glumes 

 close again. 



The perfect flower is hypo- 

 gynous and simple in struc- 

 ture, consisting of a whorl of 

 three stamens and a single 

 carpel (Fig. 84). 



One or more of the upper 

 flowers of a spikelet are im- 

 perfect, the ovary being rudi- 

 mentary and the anthers 

 without pollen grains ; fre- 

 quently the terminal flower 

 is missing altogether, and the flowering glumes and pales, though present, 

 are poorly developed. 



In many instances the entire spikelet is sterile ; especially is this the 

 v case in the lowest three or four of an ear. Occasionally one or two of 

 the apical spikelets are abortive 



FIG. 84. Flower before anthesis. a, Anther ; 

 style ; /, lodicule. Dehiscing anther below. 



