SEED-FOOD. 25 



But what is more interesting is that the amount of 

 space occupied by the embryo, as compared with 

 the amount of space filled by the seed-food sur- 

 rounding it, is also very different in different seeds. 

 In some cases, as for example in the coco-nut, the 

 nutmeg, and the date seed, the embryo is a mere 

 speck embedded in copious seed-food, much as in a 

 hen's egg the germ of the chick is surrounded by 

 the yolk and albumen. This resemblance sug- 

 gested to botanists the name albumen as a good 

 one to use for the seed-food which accompanies an 

 embryo. In other seeds such as those of maize, 

 morning-glory, and the castor-oil plant, we find a 

 medium-sized embryo and a moderate amount of 

 albumen; such might be compared to an egg in 

 which the chick had become partly developed at 

 the expense of the surrounding food. Finally there 

 are many seeds which like peanuts, almonds, and 

 chestnuts, are destitute of albumen ; but these have 

 the space within the shell filled by a well-developed 

 embryo, more or less gorged with food, and here 

 we have something to remind us of an egg just 

 ready to hatch. In every case the plantlet gets 

 all the food sooner or later, the only difference 

 being that some have to absorb more or less at the 

 time of germination, while with others the entire 



