In its initiation and early histogenesis, the gynoecium in Triticum aestivum L. is essentially similar to a single foliage leaf and does not reveal ontogenetically the tricarpellate condition generally postulated for it. The two integuments are also leaflike in origin. They commence their initiation by periclinal divisions of a few dermatogen cells on the dorsal side of the ovule, then continue their initiation circumferentially around it by similar divisions and encircle the developing ovule completely. Each stigmatic hair develops through the elongation and characteristic divisions of a single epidermal cell of the young stigma. The morphology of the grass gynoecium is discussed on the basis of its early ontogeny and the pattern of origin of vascular traces in it.