Grasses 173 
As the glumes close over the pistil so soon, 
the wind has little time in which to bring it pollen 
from other wheat-blossoms, and it is often obliged 
to use the remnant which the stamens have kept. 
With this it can produce good seed. 
The flowering period of the whole spike of blos- 
soms lasts four days, but since each flower blooms 
for but the quarter of an hour a very small propor- 
tion of them are expanded at any one time. 
One of the marked characteristics of all grass- 
flowers is their evanescence; no blossoms are so 
short lived. 
During their brief time of blooming a few 
species are visited by insects. The hospitality 
shown to these little guests is perhaps a last 
survival of an ancient family custom, a lingering 
memory of a time when the grasses habitually en- 
tertained a miscellaneous winged company, and the 
wind was by no means their only hope. 
‘“‘T have often observed a small fly busy upon 
the anthers of various grasses,’ says Miiller, ‘‘ and 
at least two species are visited by beetles.” 
The giants of the tribe are the bamboos, which, in 
their tropic homes, attain a height of fifty or sixty 
feet, while even those which grow in Florida gardens 
cast their swaying shadows on the houses’ eaves. 
