THE GRAMINP:&. 



'73 



three separate flowers forming a sort of spikelet within 

 these two outer scales (Fig. 460). Examine one of them. 



In Fig. 461 a sin- 

 gle flower is shown, 

 with the two glumes 

 found at the base 

 of the spikelet, and 

 called the lower and 

 upper glumes. What 

 remain are the parts 

 of a single flower. 

 Beginning with the 

 outermost of these 

 at the right, you see 

 a scale called the 

 outer palet. Does 

 the outer palet, in 

 the specimen you 

 are studying, termi- 

 nate in a bristle ? 



At the left you 

 see a peculiar scale, 

 folded at the sides, 

 and called the inner 

 palet. Then come 

 the scales. Look 

 carefully at your 

 flower for these mi- 

 nute bodies, which 

 are thought to be a 

 sort of perianth, the 



outer and inner scales being of the nature of bracts. We 

 next come upon the stamens, with their versatile anthers, 

 and the pistil, with its plumose stigmas the unmistakable 

 flower. The peculiar features of this inflorescence, then, 

 are 



FIG. 463. 



