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Updated: June 20, 2025
At a is shown the germ of the young plant, which remains undeveloped until the grain is planted. This part contains practically all the fat found in the grain, some starch, and a small quantity of protein. At b is shown the inside of the kernel, or the endosperm, as it is called, which is composed of starch granules interlaced with protein and mineral salts.
If, on the other hand, the endosperm is the product of an act of fertilization as definite as that giving rise to the embryo itself, we have to recognize that twin-plants are produced within the embryo-sac one, the embryo, which becomes the angiospermous plant, the other, the endosperm, a short-lived, undifferentiated nurse to assist in the nutrition of the former, even as the subsidiary embryos in a pluri-embryonic Gymnosperm may facilitate the nutrition of the dominant one.
The developing embryo at the end of the suspensor grows out to a varying extent into the forming endosperm, from which by surface absorption it derives good material for growth; at the same time the suspensor plays a direct part as a carrier of nutrition, and may even develop, where perhaps no endosperm is formed, special absorptive "suspensor roots" which invest the developing embryo, or pass out into the body and coats of the ovule, or even into the placenta.
We now see the endosperm increasing from the center, formed of floury layers, which augment in richness in gluten, in proportion as they are removed from the center.
The endosperm and the embryous membrane are the most interesting parts of the berry; the first is one of the depots of the plastic aliments, the second contains agents capable of dissolving these aliments during the germination, of determining their absorption in the digestive organs of animals, and of producing in the dough a decomposition strong enough to make dark bread.
Guided by the synergidae one male-cell passes into the oosphere with which it fuses, the two nuclei uniting, while the other fuses with the definitive nucleus, or, as it is also called, the endosperm nucleus.
In some plants the nucellus is not thus absorbed, but itself becomes a seat of deposit of reserve-food constituting the perisperm which may coexist with endosperm, as in the water-lily order, or may alone form a food-reserve for the embryo, as in Canna.
It has long been known that after fertilization of the egg has taken place, the formation of endosperm begins from the endosperm nucleus, and this had come to be regarded as the recommencement of the development of a prothallium after a pause following the reinvigorating union of the polar nuclei.
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