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CHAPTER IX 
THE TREE (continued). INFLORESCENCE AND FLOWERS— 
FRUIT AND SEED 
THE oak flowers in May in this country, the young 
inflorescences developing as the leaves unfold. The 
flowers are unisexual, both male and female appearing 
on the same branches—i.e. the tree is moncecious—and 
even on the same twigs of the current year. The rule 
is that the apical bud of a last year’s twig produces 
a few male inflorescences from between the axils of the 
upper scales, and then grows out into a green twig 
bearing about six to ten normal leaves, the female inflo- 
rescences arising from the axils of two or three of the 
upper leaves (figs. 31 and 32). Lateral buds below the 
terminal bud of the last year’s twig usually produce male 
inflorescences only—a phenomenon in accordance with 
their feeble development generally. Thus the male in- 
florescences are produced first—a common occurrence in 
forest trees. 
Since the inflorescences arise from the axils of 
leaves, their arrangement accords with the phyllotaxis 
