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 (i.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. 



E 2 



