Grasses 167 
palet and flowering glume apart, so that the 
stamens can dangle out to the wind, and the 
pistil can reach abroad for pollen. 
And by thus making themselves useful in a new 
capacity the superseded petals have 
saved their lives. 
Had they been less versatile they 
might have shared the fate of some 
sedge petals, which have shrivelled 
and shrunk to the vanishing point. 
When the pistil has been fertil- 
ized, the flowering glume and palet 
close together again and form a pro- 
: : ‘ : .. Fic. 41.—Single 
tective covering forthe ripening fruit. flower of a grass, 
showing two ves- 
The ovary has but one ovule, so  tigial petals,three 
. “ . stamens, and 
this fruit contains but one seed. ovary with two 
7 : plume-likestyles. 
It is wrapped in two coats, as seeds 
generally are, and outside these are three more coats, 
which constitute the envelopes of the fruit. 
The whole affair is known to botany as a 
‘‘caryopsis,”” and to the general public as a grain 
(Fig. 42). The innermost integument clings tight- 
ly to the seed, and each succeeding one adheres 
to the one beneath it. They peel off with diffi- 
culty, still clinging together, so that the grain ap- 
pears to have a single tough skin. 
