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CHAPTER IV 
THE SEEDLING AND YOUNG PLANT (continued) 
Irs SHOOT-SYSTEM—DISTRIBUTION OF THE TISSUES 
I now proceed to describe the chief features of import- 
ance in the structure of the shoot of the young oak- 
plant, premising that many of the remarks may here be 
curtailed in view of the facts already learnt in connec- 
tion with the root. The first object will be to bring 
out the differences in the shoot as contrasted with the 
root, and first we may examine the structure by means 
of transverse sections as before. The shoot consists of 
all the structures developed from the plumule. 
Such sections show that we have here also various 
definitely grouped tissues, of which we may conveniently 
distinguish three systems. A series of vascular bundles 
grouped in aclose ring constitutes one of these systems, 
another is represented by a single Jayer of cells at 
the periphery of the section, and this is called the 
epidermis, and the remainder of the section composes 
the third system, often termed the fundamental tissue, 
and divided arbitrarily into three rezions—the pith, the 
cortex, and the primary medullary rays (fig. 9). The 
