172 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
The too familiar sand-bur, for instance, bears 
spikelets which are each a pair of flowers, one with 
both stamens and pistil, and one with stamens 
only. The blossom of the rice has six stamens, 
and a few grass-flowers have more than six. 
But generally and typically there are three, for the 
grasses are distantly related to the lilies, and have 
no connection whatever with the rose and her kin. 
The pistils of many grass-flowers do not mature 
till the stamens round about them are empty and 
shrivelled. 
But the wind which has carried off the home- 
grown pollen will probably bring some to the wait- 
ing stigma from a neighboring plume of the same 
species of grass. 
Unless the wind thus makes restitution for the 
goods he has snatched away, these grasses will bring 
no fruit to perfection. But if they form seed the 
young plants which spring from it will have the 
advantage which double parentage gives the seedling 
in its struggle for life. 
The anthers and stigmas of the wheat mature 
together, but the flowers only expand partially, and 
remain open for but a quarter of an hour. The 
blossom appears from the glumes suddenly, scatter- 
ing some—not all—of its pollen. 
