240 FARM GRASSES OF THE TJlSnTED STATES 



little body which is in many respects a counterpart of 

 a poUen grain, and which is called an ovnle {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 (r. 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 pwUen tube. It is 

 frequently the case that ears of com ou the west side 

 of a field have grains missing. This is due to the fadl 

 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 stj-les, 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 cut in 

 their second bloom — that is, when they are just going 



