50 THE OAK. 



The veins which spring from the chief lateral ribs 

 run towards one another and anastomose, giving off 

 smaller veins which form a network in the area in- 

 cluded by them. In the neighborhood 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 center of a mesh and end there. Eound the ex- 

 treme 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 



