128 THE OAK 
from the outermost lower pair (1) of scales (stipules) to 
the innermost upper pair (21) with their leaf. 
If we suppose the female inflorescences removed, the 
above diagram will serve to represent the lateral buds 
which develop male inflorescences only, or if we sup- 
pose the three bracts F,a, and @ away, it would serve 
for a terminal bud. 
Kach single female flower stands in the axil ofa 
minute scale on the floral axis, as said, and its general 
structure has been described. When the pollen grains 
Lave been dusted on to the trifid stigma, about the end 
of May or beginning of June, each grain germinates 
and sends a minute tube down the style, and this pollen- 
tube soon reaches the cavity of the ovary, and its end 
becomes applied to one of the ovules. While the 
pollen-tube is descending the style, the ovules have 
arisen as minute cellular outgrowths from the angles of 
the three chambers of the ovary (fig. 34, d). There are 
two in each chamber. Each ovule is at first a mere 
solid lump of cells (nwcellus), which curves and becomes 
enveloped in two thin investing layers, called integu- 
ments, as shown in the figures A-pD (fig. 35). Inside 
the solid nucellus, n, of the ovule there soon arises a 
small cavity filled with nucleated protoplasm, and termed 
the embryo-sac, e, because the embryo is to be deve- 
loped in it. 
This embryo-sac contains, among other structures, 
a minute, nucleated, naked mass of protoplasm, called 
the oosphere, or egg-cell. The pollen-tube has carried 
