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THE OAK.
The male inflorescences hang down from between the bud-scales as simple catkin-like spikes, each bearing about a dozen flowers. Each male flower springs
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Fig. 31.—A sprig of oak in May, with the pendent male catkin below, and the minute spikes of female flowers just showing above. (Th. Hartig.)
from the axil of a tiny scale-like bract, and consists of a shallow perianth, unequally divided into about five to seven small linear-lanceolate lobes, inclosing about five to twelve stamens; there is no trace of an ovary. The number of lobes of the perianth varies, as also does the number of stamens; the former are covered with short hairs.