[Illustration: Fig. 30. Diagram of a spikelet of a grass as it would appear if the internodes between each set of organs were elongated. _g^1_ lower and _g^2_ upper glume. _P_ lower and _p_ upper palea of the second oldest flower _F^2_. _f_ a barren flower represented only by the axis and paleæ. Above it a single palea and the termination of the axis (_a_) of the spikelet.] Inside them the axis or stalk (_rachis_) is continued for a short distance only and on its sides are hinged two other pairs of more or less boat-shaped scales, smaller and more delicate than the glumes, and known as the _pales_ (_paleæ_), while a third pair of still smaller pales is fixed to the end of the axis. In each case one smaller and more delicate _inner_ palea is hinged just inside its more obvious _outer_ palea. In the closed condition of the spikelet each of the three pairs of pales is shut together, and pressed close to the axis, and the pair of glumes shut in the whole. On opening each of the lower pairs of pales we find a _flower_ inside; but the terminal pair usually contain only the barren end of the axis. Hence the latter is barren and the former are fertile. Each fertile flower is found on careful dissection to consist of a small swollen _Ovary_, or young grain, covered with silky hairs and with a couple of delicate plumes (the _Stigma_) at its apex, and three long and slender _Stamens_; while the magnifying glass will show two tiny scales at the base--the _Lodicules_. All our ordinary grasses have their flowers thus constructed--a pair of _lodicules_, three dangling _stamens_ and an _ovary_ with a feathery two-plumed _stigma_: each such flower is also enclosed in its pair of _pales_, and the several pairs of pales of each spikelet, with their contents, are enclosed in the pair of _glumes_ (Figs. 29-32). Returning now to the inflorescence. It is clear that we have to distinguish between the entire branched total Inflorescence, and the Spikelets or partial inflorescences of which it is composed. In Botany it is agreed to call any inflorescence consisting of a stalk or axis on which the flowers are arranged without stalks--i.e. sitting directly on it--and so that the youngest are above and the older below, a _Spike_, and each spikelet is _a little spike_. [Illustration: Fig. 31. Diagram of a spikelet of Wheat dissected (× about 5) showing--from below upwards--the two glumes, two paleæ, two lodicules, three stamens, and the ovary of the typical grass. Oliver.] [Illustration: Fig. 32. Diagram of a spikelet of _Anthoxanthum_ dissected (× about 8), and showing--from below upwards--two outer and two (awned) inner glumes, two paleæ, two stamens, and the ovary. There are no lodicules. Oliver.]