Minnesota Plant Life. 



209 



FIG 



Wild rice. After Britton and 

 Brown. 



and after harvesting it is winnowed by hand. Under the crude 

 manipulation of the Indian much chaff is usually left with 

 the grain, so that the wild rice 

 cake or porridge which the In- 

 dian makes is not always so ap- 

 petizing as one might desire. 

 The wild rice, when it flowers, 

 behaves somewhat like Indian 

 corn, but both varieties of flower- 

 clusters are rather broad panicles. 

 The spikelets contain one flower 

 each and the pistillate spikes are 

 borne higher on the stem than 

 the staminate, thus reversing the 

 relative position in the Indian 

 corn. Each staminate flower con- 

 tains six stamens. The pistillate 

 flower consists of a single ovary 

 with two divergent feathery stig- 

 mas. 



Wheat. More important to man than any other grasses in Min- 

 nesota are the wheats, which form the principal agricultural prod- 

 uct of the state. In the wheat the 

 flowers are perfect, not separated 

 as in the corn or wild rice. Sur- 

 rounded by its own cluster of 

 stamens each pistil is normally 

 sure of pollination. When the 

 fruit develops it forms an ovoid 

 grain with the embryo basally 

 and laterally disposed. A large 

 number of varieties of cultivated 

 wheat are known, the hybridiza- 

 tion and selection of which are of 

 the utmost importance to the 

 agriculture of the future, since by 

 such intelligent methods will it 

 eventually be possible to produce 



varieties which are rust-proof and far richer in flour-making sub- 

 stances than are the wheats of to-day. 

 15 



FIG. 90. Kalm's brome-grass. After 

 Britton and Brown. 



