=100. Bast portion of the bundle.=—If our section is through a part of the stem which is not too young, the tissues of the outer part of the bundle will show either one or several groups of cells which have white and shiny walls, that are thickened as much or more than those of the wood vessels. These cells are _bast_ cells, and for this reason this part of the bundle is the _bast_ portion, or the _phloem_. Intermingled with these, cells may often be found which have thin walls, unless the bundle is very old. Nearer the center of the bundle and still within the bast portion are cells with thin walls, angular and irregularly arranged. This is the softer portion of the bast, and some of these cells are what are called _sieve_ tubes, which can be better seen and studied in a longitudinal section of the stem. =101. Cambium region of the bundle.=—Extending across the center of the bundle are several rows of small cells, the smallest of the bundle, and we can see that they are more regularly arranged, usually in quite regular rows, like bricks piled upon one another. These cells have thinner walls than any others of the bundle, and they usually take a deeper stain when treated with a solution of some of the dyes. This is because they are younger, and are therefore richer in protoplasmic contents. This zone of young cells across the bundle is the _cambium_. Its cells grow and divide, and thus increase the size of the bundle. By this increase in the number of the cells of the cambium layer, the outermost cells on either side are continually passing over into the phloem, on the one hand, and into the wood portion of the bundle, on the other hand. =102. Longitudinal section of the bundle.=—If we make thin longisections of the vascular bundle of the castor-oil seedling (or other dicotyledon) so that we have thin ones running through a bundle radially, as shown in fig. 59, we can see the structure of these parts of the bundle in side view. We see here that the form of the cells is very different from what is presented in a cross-section of the same. The walls of the various ducts have peculiar markings on them. These markings are caused by the walls being thicker in some places than in others, and this thickening takes place so regularly in some instances as to form regular spiral thickenings. Others have the thickenings in the form of the rounds of a ladder, while still others have pitted walls or the thickenings are in the form of rings. [Illustration: Fig. 59. Longitudinal section of vascular bundle of sunflower stem; spiral, scalariform and pitted vessels at left; next are wood fibers with oblique cross walls; in middle are cambium cells with straight cross walls, next two sieve tubes, then phloem or bast cells.]