Definition of "perisperm" []

• Botany The nutritive tissue that is derived from the nucleus and surrounds the embryo of the seed. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Under this tissue is found with the Nos. 7, 8, and 9, the endosperm or perisperm, containing the gluten and the starch; soluble and insoluble albuminoids, that is to say, the flour."
• "Seeds in which endosperm or perisperm or both exist are commonly called"
• "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_."