Such a vascular cylinder is called a haplostele, and the axis containing it is said to be haplostelic. In the stele of the root the strands of tracheids along the lines where the xylem touches the pericycle are spiral or annular, and are the xylem elements first formed when the cylinder is developing.
The typical structure of the vascular cylinder of the adult primary stem in the Gyrnnosperms and Dicotyledons is, like that of the higher ferns, a hollow cylinder of vas- Structure of cular tissue enclosing a central parenchymatous pith.
Where a large-celled pith is developed this often becomes obvious very early, and in some cases it appears to have separate initials situated below those of the hollow vascular cylinder.
The periblem, one cell thick at the apex, produces the cortex, to which the piliferous layer belongs in Monocotyledons; and the plerome, which is nearly always sharply separated from the periblem, gives rise to the vascular cylinder.
The genus Zygopteris, of which numerous Carboniferous and Permian species are known, likewise had a monostelic stem, but the structure of its vascular cylinder was somewhat complex, resembling that of the most highly differentiated Hymenophyllaceae, with which some species of Zygopteris also agreed in the presence of axillary shoots.