ALBUMEN, in botany, a store of nutritive matter, distinct from the embryo, but inclosed along with it within the integuments of the seed. It is also known by the names perisperm and endosperm. When a seed has a store of A. separate from the embryo, it is said to be albuminous or perispermic. When the nutritive matter is stored up in the cotyledons or lobes of the seed itself, as in the bean, pea, wall-flower, etc., the seed is said to be exalbuminous or aperkpermic. In these the A., as a distinct part of the ' seed, is wanting, and the entire seed consists of embryo and integument. When tlit A. is present, it is sometimes very small, as in the nettle; in other instances, on the contrary, it is very much larger than the embryo, as in the cocoa-nut, of which it forms the edible part. It is also the edible or useful part of many other seeds—as in the different kinds of corn—and iu coffee, nutmeg, etc. It is sometimes mealy or farinaceous, as iu the
cereals; oily, as in the poppy; horny, as in coffee; cartilaginous, as in the cocoa-nut; muciktginotts, as in the mallow. Vegetable ivory is the A. of a palm (genus phytelephas) which grows on the banks of the Magdalena, and is used in place of ivory. The pres ence or absence, and various peculiarities of A., afford botanical characters of great value. The A. appears to be a store provided for the nourishment of the embryo, and consists of starchy, oily, and albuminous matter. Vegetable A., in a chemical sense, exists, and often in large quantity, even in seeds, which, according to the language of descriptive botany, are exalbuininous or destitute of A. ; and to prevent confusion, pert sperm has begun to be employed as the botanical term; but it is not yet in general use.