240 FARM GRASSES OF THE UNITED STATES 
little body which is in many respects a counterpart of 
a pollen grain, and which is called an ovule (e, Fig.54). 
The rootlet from the pollen grain continues to 
grow down through the substance of the stigma and 
the ovary until it finds the ovule. It seems to be 
guided in some unknown way to the very point where 
the ovule is found. As soon as the rootlet (pollen 
tube) touches the ovule, some small particles of living 
matter in the tube (7, Fig. 54,) pass through he wall 
of the tube and enter the ovule. What occurs then in 
the ovule would take many pages to tell. Suffice it to 
say that one of the living particles from the pollen tube 
unites with a very similar particle in the ovule, and the 
two then begin to grow and a seed is formed. The 
little particle in the ovule cannot grow unless it unites 
with the similar particle from the pollen tube. It is 
frequently the case that ears of corn on the west side 
of a field have grains missing. This is due to the fact 
that while the pollen was falling the wind blew most 
of it away, and some of the hairs of the silk (these 
hairs are the styles) had no pollen grains light on their 
stigmas. 
In some grass flowers the styles protrude from the 
flowers before the anthers do. When in this stage a 
grass is popularly said to be in its first bloom. In 
those that protrude their anthers first, or at the same 
time with their styles, before the anthers burst they are 
said to be in their first bloom. Later, when the an- 
thers have shed their pollen, and hang limp on their 
slender filaments, the plant is said to be in second bloom. 
Most of the coarser grasses make the best hay if cutin 
their second bloom—that is, when they are just going 
