121 



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 monoecious 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 



