Seed
Seeds are met with only in flowering plants, and are the result of the union of the male and female elements, for the reproduction of the species. They are the ovules, fertilised by the action of the pollen, and subsequently ripened (see Ovule); and each contains an embryo (rarely two or more), i.e., a young plant, capable, when the Seed is placed in suitable conditions, of becoming, in all points, like its parents. The existence of an embryo in Seeds affords a sharp distinction between them and the spores of Cryptogams, which correspond with them in function, but are very often one-celled, and never contain an embryo. A reference to the account given under Ovule will facilitate the explanation of the changes that the ovules undergo in becoming