xviii.] EAR-COCKLE IN" WHEAT, OATS, & RYE. 107 



ribs, as at B, and a flowering glume with its central mid- 

 rib C. The flowering glume is often capped with a long 

 thread beard or awn, familiar in barley and oats. The 

 whole growth is embraced by the two outer glumes at 

 DD. 



We will now closely examine one of the four groups, 

 with its two enclosing scales, the flowering glume and 

 pale. Arranged round each pistil (or in the ripe ear the 

 grain) are three stamens, E, F, and G (Fig. 41), and two 

 beautiful fimbriated transparent, membranous, almost 

 microscopic scales at H, J; the three delicate drooping 

 stamens and two little scales all grow at the base of the 

 pistil, carpel, or grain. The two little transparent scales 

 are usually admitted to represent the perianth of more 

 perfect flowers. The different parts of a grass spikelet 

 possess considerable botanical interest, and the questions 

 are by no means settled as to the exact morphological 

 significance of the glumes, palae, and scales, and their mode 

 of attachment. The questions are, however, beyond our 

 province here, and need not be discussed in detail. It 

 is remarkable that the two little transparent scales at 

 the base of the pistil are persistent, and in this they differ 

 from the fugitive feathery stigmas and stamens. 



As great attention has been directed by botanists to 

 the two minute scales, technically termed lodicules, grow- 

 ing at the base of the ovary, and their connection with 

 ear-cockle, a single grain of wheat detached from the 

 spikelet, but still enclosed within its pale, is shown 

 enlarged to five diameters at Fig. 42. The spectator 

 is supposed to be looking towards the interior of the 

 pale, and the furrow or cleft of the seed is away from the 

 spectator and towards the pale. Pendulous from the base 

 of the grain is a withered stamen. On either side of the 

 point of insertion of the stamen, and at the base of the 

 grain, the two minute lodicules are seen at A and B. 

 The wrinkled part of the base of the grain at G is the 

 spot whence the plumule and radicle of the young wheat- 



