SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS 



73 



Other Foods in Corn Grain. Other foods besides starch and 

 sugar are present in the corn grain. A test for proteid shows that 

 a considerable amount of this food is present. Oil also is found. 

 In the sweet corn that we eat water forms a very large percentage 

 of its composition by weight. 



Monocotyledons, Dicotyledons, and Polycotyledons. Plants 

 that bear seeds having but a single cotyledon are called monocoty- 



A hardwood forest showing representative di- 

 cotyledonous trees. 



A pine seedling. 

 Note the number 

 of cotyledons. 



ledons. (What are some other characteristics ?) Although we find 

 a good many monocotyledonous plants in this part of the world, this 

 group is characteristic of the tropics, just as the dicotyledons are 

 the type for the temperate climate. Sugar cane and many of the 

 large trees, such as the date palm, palmetto, and banana, are ex- 

 amples. Among the common monocotyledons of the north tem- 

 perate zone are corn, lily, hothouse smilax, and asparagus. Dicot- 

 yledons or plants having two cotyledons in the seed are those with 



