THE SEEDLING AND YOUNG PLANT 51 
stem. Several other small strands also are formed, as 
at z, to complete the filling up of the gap, and these may 
be called completing bundles. These connecting and 
completing bundles enable the young shoot as it deve- 
lops from the bud to enclose its own pith in a cylinder 
of vascular tissue continuous with that of the parent 
shoot. 
We thus see that the vascular bundles form a con- 
nected system in the leaves, buds (7.e. young branches), 
and stem, and it only remains to add that they are 
joined below to those of the root-system, with which, 
in fact, they took origin in the very young embryo. 
Hence, if we were to remove the whole of the softer 
tissues of the oak-plant, we should have a model of it 
left in the form of a more or less open basket-work of 
vascular bundles. It is necessary to bear this in mind, 
as some important conclusions follow from it sub- 
sequently. 
B2 
