PABTICULAB TYPES OF FLOWEBS (GBASSES) 229 



262a. The pupil will now be interested in an attempt to make 

 out the bracts or glumes in the pistillate inflorescence of corn (the 

 ear), and he will find that the kernel or grain very soon outgrows 

 the bracts. Do these bracts remain upon the cob? It would in- 

 terest the pupil if he were to grow a few hills of the "husk corn" 

 (seed of which is often sold by seedsmen), 

 in which each kernel is still enclosed in 

 the glumes at maturity. 



263. If, now, we return to 

 the spike of rye (Fig. 217), and 

 examine the lowest spikelet on 

 the front, we observe that the 

 lowest glumes are not so long- 

 awned as the flowering-glume is 

 in the single flower at the right. 

 They are empty glumes; that is, 

 there are no flowers above them. 

 This shows that each spike- 

 let is really a shortened' branch, 

 and the lowest bracts usually 

 remain empty, as we have found 

 (42) the lowest leaves upon a 

 shoot to remain devoid of good 

 axillary buds. The spikelet of 

 rye is said to be 2- to 3 -flowered, 

 but only one or two of the flow- 

 ers develop. A knowledge of a 

 common branch, therefore, aids 

 us to interpret even such complex structures as the 

 inflorescence and flower of a grass. 



Fio. 220. 

 Compound spike of cares. 



