Fig. 36. Half of an acorn, cut lengthwise, filled by the very thick cotyledons, the base of which encloses the minute caulicle. 37. Oak-seedling.
Fig. 38. Half of a horse-chestnut, similarly cut; the caulicle is curved down on the side of one of the thick cotyledons. 39. Horse-chestnut in germination; foot-stalks are formed to the cotyledons, pushing out in their lengthening the growing parts.
29. Such thick cotyledons never separate; indeed, they sometimes grow together by some part of their contiguous faces; so that the germination seems to proceed from a solid bulb-like mass. This is the case in a horse-chestnut.
[30.] Germinating Embryo supplied by its own Store of Nourishment, i. e. the store in the cotyledons. This is so in all the illustrations thus far, essentially so even in the Flax. This nourishment was supplied by the mother plant to the ovule and seed, and thence taken into the embryo during its growth. Such embryos, filling the whole seed, are comparatively large and strong, and vigorous in germination in proportion to the amount of their growth while connected with the parent plant.
[31.] Germinating Embryo supplied from a Deposit outside of Itself. This is as common as the other mode; and it occurs in all degrees. Some seeds have very little of this deposit, but a comparatively large embryo, with its parts more or less developed and recognizable. In others this deposit forms the main bulk of the seed, and the embryo is small or minute, and comparatively rudimentary. The following illustrations exemplify these various grades. When an embryo in a seed is thus surrounded by a white substance, it was natural to liken the latter to the white of an egg, and the embryo or germ to the yolk. So the matter around or by the side of the embryo was called the Albumen, i. e. the white of the seed. The analogy is not very good; and to avoid ambiguity some botanists call it the Endosperm. As that means in English merely the inwards of a seed, the new name is little better than the old one; and, since we do not change names in botany except when it cannot be avoided, this name of albumen is generally kept up. A seed with such a deposit is albuminous, one with none is exalbuminous.
32. The Albumen forms the main bulk of the seed in wheat, maize, rice, buckwheat, and the like. It is the floury part of the seed. Also of the cocoa-nut, of coffee (where it is dense and hard), etc.; while in peas, beans, almonds, and in most edible nuts, the store of food, although essentially the same in nature and in use, is in the embryo itself, and therefore is not counted as anything to be separately named. In both forms this concentrated food for the germinating plant is food also for man and for animals.
Fig. 40. Seed of Morning Glory divided, moderately magnified; shows a longitudinal section through the centre of the embryo as it lies crumpled in the albumen. 41. Embryo taken out whole and unfolded; the broad and very thin cotyledons notched at summit; the caulicle below. 42. Early state of germination. 43. Same, more advanced; caulicle or primary stem, cotyledons or seed-leaves, and below, the root, well developed.