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CHAPTER IV 



THE SEEDLING AND YOUNG PLANT (conti 



ITS 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 a close ring constitutes one of these systems, 

 another is represented by a single layer 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 regions the pith, the 

 cortex, and the primary medullary rays (fig. 9). The 



