Outlines of medical botany : comprising vegetable anatomy and physiology, the characters and properties of the natural orders of plants, an explanation of the Linnaean system of classification, and tables of medicinal plants, arranged in their Linnaean and natural orders / by Hugo Reid.

  • Reid, Hugo, 1809-1872.
Date:
1832
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Outlines of medical botany : comprising vegetable anatomy and physiology, the characters and properties of the natural orders of plants, an explanation of the Linnaean system of classification, and tables of medicinal plants, arranged in their Linnaean and natural orders / by Hugo Reid. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    THE SEED. J 11 399. The integuments, taken together, constitute what is called the episperm, and they are frequently- incorporated together, so that there appears to he only- one covering. The primine (336) of the ovule be- comes the spermoderm, or testa of Gaertner, The Fig. 38. secundine (336) receives the name of me- sosperm; and the others (339) are called endopleura. The episperm is very distinct in the Pea and Bean; and the hilum is al- ways jjlaced on it. (See Fig. 38, in which the dark part is the hilum.) 400. The albumen is the peculiar mucihiginous or amylaceous substance found in many seeds between the integuments and the embryo. It has also received the names of perisperm and endosperm. 401. The albumen forms a great part of the seed in monocotyledonous plants: these have only one cotyle- don, which is generally small, as in the Wheat and other Graminese. The albumen affords nourishment to the young embryo during the first stage of its growth, becoming soluble and of a saccharine nature. It is a store of nutritious matter, laid up during the growth of the ovide, being formed of that part of the liquor amnios (339), which was not required to bring the seed to perfection. The white matter in the Cocoa Nut is the albumen, and the fluid is the residue of the liquor amnios, which is very plentiful in this plant. 402. The albumen may, in general, be eaten with perfect safety, even in families of a dangerous nature, as the Euphorbiaceae. In Wheat, Oats, and Barley,' it consists principally of starch and gluten, and is very Avholesome. 2