THE SEEDLING AND YOUNG PLANT 43 
Now, the important point to apprehend first is that 
these strands at the corners (M,s) are the strands which 
pass directly into the leaves through the petioles, and 
it is necessary to be perfectly clear on this subject in 
order to understand much of what follows. For instance, 
the three strands marked o in fig. 9, A (mm, ms, and 
ms in fig. 10), pass directly into a given leaf, mm, in 
the middle, flanked by ms on either side; but this 
group is also accompanied on each side by another strand, 
(marked s,s’ in fig. 9, A, and /, J in fig. 10), so that five 
strands may be regarded as contributing to each corner 
of the section, the three middle ones running side by 
side up the midrib of the leaf and then branching out 
in a manner to be described subsequently. 
It can be shown, moreover, that the larger curved 
strands, occupying the sides of the pentagon, are simply 
formed by the union of several of the smaller strands at 
different levels. 
If, now, successively lower sections are cut of the 
very young shoot, and compared, or if the shoot is 
softened and dissected, it is possible to make out the 
course of these vascular bundle strands lower down ; 
the course is somewhat complex, but the diagrammatic 
sketches in fig. 11 will enable the reader to apprehend 
the chief points. 
In the first place, the middle strand from a leaf, 
mm, passes vertically down in the angle of the young 
stem through five internodes (marked by the horizontal 
lines), turning to one side and becoming continuous in 
