84 Field, Forest, and Wayside Flowers 
husk enclosing six small nuts or seeds. But, in 
fact, five of the cells are all but obliterated in the 
forming fruit, which thus becomes one-celled and 
one-seeded. 
But if we strip the shell off a mature acorn we 
can generally see near its base three irregular 
lobes, which are a reminiscence of the three 
chambers of the young ovary. 
And between these lobes are the last vestiges 
of the partitions which once completely trisected 
the baby-acorn. 
The pistil of the maple blossom is a double af- 
fair, with two styles, two stigmas, two ovaries, 
and four ovules, two in each ovary; but the 
winged twin-fruit which results from its develop- 
ment contains but two seeds (Fig. 15). 
It is not unusual for atrophy to go still further 
and for one-half of the double fruit to stop grow- 
ing very early in the season, so that in the end 
the fruit turns out to be an unsymmetrical thing, 
with one side swelled into firmer and plumper pro- . 
portions, because nourishment has been withheld 
from the other. 
In the acorns and horse-chestnuts which come 
to maturity, the -baby-plant is supplied with a 
particularly rich and plentiful stock of starches on 
