166 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
And the pistil is especially fitted to catch the 
precious dust as it flies. 
The stigma is proportionately long and large, 
and forks into two parts. 
These spread widely asunder, as if welcoming 
the pollen with open arms; and they are hairy and 
somewhat glutinous, so that the golden grains 
which come to them may catch and cling. 
But in the anatomy of grasses and of oats, 
among the rest we find hints that the codperation 
between them and the wind has not always been 
so perfect as it is to-day. 
For the flowers still have vestiges of petals, and 
hence we surmise that once upon a time they 
lured insects, and were fertilized by them. 
When the wind became the pollen carrier for 
the grass-blossoms, their petals were no longer 
needed as insect lures. So they grew ‘‘small by 
degrees and beautifully less.” 
Some grasses have three of these moementoes of 
bygone glories, others have only two (Fig. 41). 
They are minute affairs, transparent or translu- 
cent, and very pretty under a low-power micro- 
scope even in their present degradation. When 
the stamens and pistil are matured these reminis- 
cences of petals become succulent, and thus force 
