f a seed 221

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B. _The Nutrine_.--A word which I coin, for general
applicability, whether to the farina of
corn, the substance of a nut, or the parts that
become the first leaves in a bean 221

C. _The Germ_.--The origin of the root 221

II. THE HUSK.--Defined 222

Consists, like the seed when in perfect form, of
three parts.

A. _The Skin_.--The outer envelope of all the
seed structures 222

B. _The Rind_.--The central body of the Husk. 222-235

C. _The Shell_.--Not always shelly, yet best described
by this general term; and becoming
a shell, so called, in nuts, peaches, dates, and
other such kernel-fruits 222

The products of the Seed and Husk of Plants, for
the use of animals, are practically to be massed
under the three heads of BREAD, OIL, and FRUIT.
But the substance of which bread is made is
more accurately described as Farina; and the
pleasantness of fruit to the taste depends on two
elements in its substance: the juice, and the
pulp containing it, which may properly be
called Nectar and Ambrosia. We have therefore
in all four essential products of the Seed
and Husk--

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A. Farina. Flour 227

B. Oleum. Oil 229

C. Nectar. Fruit-juice 229

D. Ambrosia. Fruit-substance 230

Besides these all-important products of the seed, others are formed in the
stems and leaves of plants, of which no account hitherto has been given in
Proserpina. I delay any extended description of these until we have
examined the structure of wood itself more closely; this intricate and
difficult task having been remitted (p. 195) to the days of coming spring;
and I am well pleased that my younger readers should at first be vexed with
no more names to be learned than those of the vegetable productions with
which they are most pleasantly acquainted: but for older ones, I think it
well, before closing the present volume, to indicate, with warning, some of
the obscurities, and probable fallacies, with which this vanity of science
encumbers the chemistry, no less than the morphology, of plants.

Looking back to one of the f