10 ELEMENTS OF BOTANY. 
Malt, which is merely sprouted barley with its germination 
permanently stopped at the desired point by the application 
of heat, tastes much sweeter than the unsprouted grain, and 
can be shown by chemical tests to have suffered a variety of 
changes. 
Germinating kernels of corn undergo great alterations in 
their structure (see Fig. 12). 
-14,. The Embryo and its Development.— The miniature 
plant, as it exists ready-formed in the seed, is called the 
embryo. In the seeds so far examined the entire contents of 
the seed-ccats consist of the embryo, but this is not the case 
with the great majority of seeds. 
As soon as the young plants of squash, bean, and pea have 
reached a height of three or four inches above the ground it is 
easy to recognize important differences in the way in which 
they set out in life. 
The cotyledons of the squash increase greatly in surface, 
acquire a green color and a generally leaf-like appearance, 
and, in fact, do the work of ordinary leaves. In such a case 
as this the appropriateness of the name seed-leaf is evident 
enough, — one recognizes at sight the fact that the cotyledons 
are actually the plant’s first leaves. In the bean the leaf-like 
nature of the cotyledons is not so clear. They rise out of 
the ground like the squash cotyledons, but then gradually 
shrivel away, though they may first turn green and somewhat 
leaf-like for a time. 
In the pea (as in the acorn, the horse-chestnut, and many 
other seeds) we have quite another plan, the underground 
type of germination. Here the thick cotyledons no longer 
rise above ground at all, because they are so gorged with 
nourishment that they could never become leaves; but the 
young stem pushes rapidly up from the surface of the soil. 
The development of the plumule seems to depend somewhat 
on that of the cotyledons. ‘The squash-seed has cotyledons 
