Fig. 411. Cone of a common Pitch Pine. 412. Inside view of a separated scale or open carpel; one seed in place: 413, the other seed.
Section XV. THE SEED.
380. Seeds are the final product of the flower, to which all its parts and offices are subservient. Like the ovule from which it originates, a seed consists of coats and kernel.
Fig. 414. Seed of a Linden or Basswood cut through lengthwise, and magnified, the parts lettered: a, the hilum or scar; b, the outer coat; c, the inner; d, the albumen; e, the embryo.
[381.] The Seed-coats are commonly two ([320]), the outer and the inner. Fig. [414] shows the two, in a seed cut through lengthwise. The outer coat is often hard or crustaceous, whence it is called the Testa, or shell of the seed; the inner is almost always thin and delicate.