In technical language, the rent which is provided for by the lease is "reserved," as distinguished from a part of the land, which may be "excepted."47 No particular language is necessary, it being sufficient if it indicates an intention that the rent named shall be paid or rendered to the lessor.48

It is a well recognized rule of the common law that rent must be reserved in favor of the lessor or grantor himself, and not in favor of a stranger, since it is paid by way of retribution for the land and should consequently go to him from whom the land passes.40 In several states, however, the courts have referred to money which the lessee agrees to pay to a stranger as rent, without apparently any suspicion that this is not in accordance with the common law.50

As a rent may be reserved on a conveyance in fee, so it may be reserved upon the transfer of the whole interest of a tenant for life or for years, a reversion in the transferor being unnecessary.51