PARTICULAR TTPJSS OF FLOWERS (GRASSES) 227 



260. Rye is drawn in Fig. 217. The spike 

 (called a "head" by farmers) is at the left, and 

 a flower is enlarged at the right. The pistil, with 

 two feathery styles, is seen in the center at a, 

 and there are three stamens with versatile anthers, 

 h h h. There are two parts, c c, which might be 

 taken for petals. The flower is, therefore, wholly 

 unlike the rush in its plan, and suggests that the 

 two plants are not close of kin. 



260a. Similar structure can be made out for the flower of June 

 grass in Fig. 218, which is a flower taken from the panicle in 

 Fig. 189. 



261. If the flowers of grasses were examined 

 with care, however, two or three minute scales 

 would be found at the base of the 



ovary; these (known as lodicules) 

 are held to represent the perianth. 

 The two petal -like bodies, then, 

 must be reinforcements of the flower, 

 and they are now considered to be 

 specialized bracts (or glumes). The 

 outer bract (seen on the right in 

 the picture of rye and on the left 



Pro 218 



in Fig. 218) is called the flower- 



Reinforced flower of 



ing-glume, and the inner and smaller june-grass. 

 one the palet. They were formerly 

 called the outer and inner — or lower and upper — 

 palets. These are characteristic features of the 



