76 NEW ZEALAND NATURE-STUDY BOOK 
Find a culm with the flowers open. Note that they 
are small and inconspicuous, though their dangling violet- 
tinted anthers lend them some beauty. At the base of the 
stamens look for the ovary with its two feathery stigmas. 
For seeing these a common pocket magnifying glass will be 
helpful, and with its aid you will probably be able to make 
out the pollen grains on the anthers of the stamens. In 
most grasses the anthers hang out in the way observed 
here. They thus allow the pollen to be easily wafted from 
plant to plant by the wind. The 
stigmas are branched and feathery in 
order the more easily to catch the 
pollen grains that are blown about by 
the wind. Nearly all grasses are 
fertilised by the wind, and this often 
brings about cross-fertilisation, the 
pollen from one plant fertilising the 
ovary of another one. Sometimes the 
pollen is ripe and scattered abroad 
Fig. 60.—Flower of before the ovary of the same flower 
wheat with scales re- : : 
moved, showing loose is full-grown. This makes cross- 
anthers and feathe ate f ; 
pistil, *Y fertilisation more certain. The “seed” 
formed after cross-fertilisation produces 
more healthy and vigorous plants than when the flowers are 
self-fertilised. Rub in your palms some spikelets well past 
flower and examine the minute seeds. Note that each “seed” 
consists of a thin scaly husk (the flowering glume and palea) 
and the grain. or fruit held more or less loosely within 
them. These parts can be much more easily seen in Wheat 
or Oats, and some ripe heads of these grasses should be ready 
for showing the husk and fruit. The grain of a grass 1s 
a true “fruit” for it consists of the full-grown or ripened 
ovary, which then contains a single seed filling the whole 
of its cavity. What is commonly called the “seed” of 
