126 



PASTORAL AND AGRICULTURAL BOTANY 



Sometimes there is only one flower in the spikelet. This may be herma- 

 phrodite, or it may be staminate, or pistillate. Frequently the spikelet 

 has several to many florets all of which are perfect, or the upper florets 

 may be imperfect, or sterile, and the lowermost perfect, or vice versa. 

 Sometimes the flower is represented in the spikelet by one of its subtend- 

 ing scale leaves. The bractlet which subtends the floret is known as the 

 lemma (flowering glume) and the inner scale opposed to the outer is the 

 palet, or palea (Fig. 50). Frequently the lemma bears a bristle-like 

 outgrowth, or awn, and this may be barbed. In many grasses, the 



- rachij 



B 



FIG. 49. FIG. 50. 



FIG. 49. Single spikelet of common wheat (Triticum [astivum). X 2. (Robbins.) 



FIG. 50. Rye (Secale cereale). A, a single spikelet at a joint on the rachis; B, 



grain, external view; C, grain in cross-section. A, X2); B and C, X5- (Robbins.) 



perianth segments of ordinary monocotyledons, such as the lily, are repre- 

 sented by three (bamboos), two (most grasses), or a single small body 

 known as a lodicule, or a squamula. It is the swelling of these lodicules 

 which causes the separation of lemma from palet permitting the anthers 

 and styles to emerge. A floret without lodicules never opens. The 

 stamens of the grasses have long filaments and anthers, which are really 

 adnate, but by the growth of the anther lobes below the point of attach- 

 ment of the filament and the final swinging of the anther in the wind, the 

 whole arrangement strongly suggests the versatile anther. Most grasses 



