Lily-kin and Rose-kin 119 
In all these seeds the store of nourishment is 
packed around the little plant, close to it, but dis- 
tinct from it. 
Scientific botanists call such seeds as this ‘‘al- 
buminous,” and they are produced by the majority 
of the lily’s kin. 
The seeds of most dicotyledons, on the con- 
trary, contain little or nothing, except the baby- 
plant, and are called ‘‘ exalbuminous.” 
But we must not infer from this term that the 
kin of the rose send their offspring out portion- 
less into the cold world. Food for the seedling 
during its feeble infancy is generally present, and 
often abundant. Peas, beans, and acorns are fat 
and firm with starches for the young plant. Rape, 
flaxseed, and castor-oil beans are rich in vegetable 
oil, and nearly all seeds contain nitrogenous nour- 
ishment in the form of aleurone. 
But this nourishment is stored, not around the 
baby-plant, but within the tissues of the first 
‘leaves. And these leaves, in the kin of the rose, 
are always two in number. Their substance has 
formed part of the seed, and therefore they are 
called seed-leaves or ‘‘cotyledons,” and all the 
plants which have two of them are distinguished as 
dicotyledons (two-seed leaves). When we take the 
