50 THE OAK 



smaller veins which form a network in the area included 

 by them. In the neighbourhood of the leaf-margin, 

 however, the smaller veins curve towards one another, 

 and make arches convex towards the margin. In the 

 finer meshes individual minute branches run to the 

 centre of a mesh and end there. Round the extreme 

 edge of the leaf is a single vascular bundle ; this receives 

 small bundles from the above-mentioned arches, and 

 also receives the ends of the midrib and the chief lateral 

 ribs (cf. fig. 1). 



The vascular bundles of the axillary bud, which will 

 eventually, of course, form a system like that already 

 described on their own account, pass down and join the 

 bundles of the parent axis as follows. 



The bundles of each lateral half of the bud (fig. 11, 

 a a) pass down together between the bundles of the leaf- 

 trace of the leaf from whose axil the bud arises, and the 

 next lateral bundles of the stem with which the leaf- trace 

 bundles are conjoined ; the common strand formed by 

 the bundles of each side of the bud then joins with a 

 bundle coming down from another leaf. A few of the 

 strands may also join to the bundles of the leaf-trace 

 itself. 



At the back or top side of the bud i.e. the side next 

 the stem which bears it a few vascular bundles pass 

 from the bud to the nearest strand (fig. 11, z) ; this is 

 the middle strand coming down from the leaf vertically 

 above the bud i.e. the sixth leaf up the stem. Knowing 

 this, we of course know how the branch is joined to the 



