STORAGE OF FOOD 



as the bean, which is made up almost entirely of two large 

 cotyledons. These two classes include all the true flowering- 

 plants which are frequently referred to as monocots and dicots, 

 or mono and dicotyledonous plants. Our common Indian corn 

 is a good example of the first and the common bean of the second 

 of these groups. 



Storage of Food. There are two general types of storage 

 of food in seeds. In some seeds the entire food supply is to 



FIG. 2. Seed of lima bean; a, b, showing micropyle (mi) and hilum (h); c, with seed 

 coat and one cotyledon removed showing root hypocotyl (hy) and plumule (pi) ; d, germination. 



Fia. 3. Seed of caator oil plant; a and b, upper and lower surfaces; c, after removal of the 

 seed coat; d, e, cotyledon showing leaf characters. 



be found in the cotyledons, as in the case of the bean (Fig. 2), 

 while in others the food is found in the cells which immediately 

 surround the little embryo plant, as in the corn and the so-called 

 castor bean. (Figs. 1 and 3.) Tn, these latter cases the cotyle- 

 dons frequently serve as organs through which the stored food 



