238 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 



Next is the palet, which is another leaf-like organ, 

 usually having two ridges on the back, with a furrow 

 between them, thus adapting it to fit snugly against 

 the floret next above it in the spikelet. The empty 

 glumes, the floral glumes, and the palets constitute 

 the ' ' chaff. ' ' In reading what follows it is well to 

 refer frequently to Fig. 53, otherwise this description 

 wiU be meaningless to those not familiar with the study 

 of botany. The ovary is the part that afterward 

 develops into the grain or seed. But no seed could be 

 formed were it not for the anthers. 



It will be seen in the figure that at the top of the 

 ovarj' there are two large feather-like projections. 

 These are the styles. Over a portion of the surface of 

 the style the skin is missing, the bare flesh of the 

 style being exposed to the air. This bare area is 

 called the stigma. At a certain stage in the develop- 

 ment of the flower the stigma is covered with a 

 gummj^ substance which is of gfreat importance in the 

 economy of the flower. 



Let us now turn to the anthers, of which the blue- 

 grass flower has three. When ripe these anthers are 

 filled with exceeding^ small, round, j-ellowish bodies 

 called pollen grains. About the time the gummy sub- 

 stance appears on the stigma the anthers burst and a 

 shower of pollen falls. When one of the pollen gjrains 

 strikes on the stigma it sticks there. (See/>, Fig. 54). 

 This gum seems to a<5l as a sort of stimulus to the pol- 

 len grain, for the grain soon sends out a slender rootlet 

 (pollen tube, pt. Fig. 54,) which grows down into 

 the flesh of the stigma much the same as a root. grows 

 down into the soil. Now there is down in the ovary a 



