Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-18
GREEN VEGETABLES

parlance, of speaking of animal FOOD
as contrasted with vegetable food, and
by the latter term we mean all those
foods derived from living plants. Not
withstanding this entirely rational use
of the word vegetable" we nave
come to give it a different meaning
when we use 1t as we commonly do IN
the plural form. Not uncommonly
popular classification of foods derived
from plants divides them into the ce--
reals, the fruits, the vegetables and
the condiments. The term cereal
is derived from the name of the Greek
goddess of agriculture, Ceres. Grains
of all kinds were sacred to her, ana
because of this they have come to be
known as cereals. 1t may not be with
out interest to know that all true ce-
reals are members of the much va
ried and widely distributed grass fam
ily-wheat oats, rye, barley and corn
being common representatives of this
great order of plants.
The term fruit is properly applied
to the seed of the plant and the en-
velope Immediately surrounding the
seed Strictly speaking, all cereals,
according to this definition, are fruits,
though in popular classification. as
before stated, they are placed in a
group by themselves.
The term vegetable" is popularly
applied to those portions of the plant
which are not seeds and which are
commonly used for food IT will be at
once recognized that although peas
and beans are usually called Vege-
tables, they are, strictly speaking,
examples of fruits.
The term "condiment" is properly
applied to vegetable products of pun
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more for giving a flavor to other ar
ticles of food than for any nutrient
material which they may themselves
contain.
The common articles of food denom-
mated vegetables are lettuce, spinach,
caulif1oWer bee s., asparagus, radfshes,
turn'ps. cabbage, potatoes. 1t will be
noted that the following fruits are not
infrequently included in the list of
vegetables-corn. peas, beans. toma-
toes. While these are grouped to-
gether under the name of vegetable,
they are widely separated from bo-
tanical standpoint.
Lettuce belongs to the sunfower
family and, like several other mem
bers Of this family, it's juice contains
an alkaloid closely related to opium
The amount of this alkaloid which
one would get from eating an or mary
amount of lettuce is too small to
merit serious consideration. Few. il
any, families of plants are more wide
ly distributed than is the sunfioweI
family. In the tropics many of the
members of this family grow into
large trees. In warm, temperate re-
gions many of them are shrubs, ano
in temperate and cold temperate re-
gions they are for the most part an
nual herbs. When one considers the
great number of species in this fam-
ily and their wide distribution we can
not help feeling surprise at the small
number of species which furnish ar
ticles for human diet.
Spinach and beets are closely re-
lated, both belonging to what is
known as the goose-foot family Of
plants. Many of the plants of this
family or order the terms being
synonymous in botany, are trouble
some weeds.
While the leaves of both lettuce ant
spinach are used for food. 1t is the
root of the beet which is chiefly useful
Asparagus is a plant belonging tC
the lily family, and it is the tender
stem before the leaves have formed
which furnish food.
Radishes, turnips, cauliflower anC
the cabbage are all members of the
mustard family. In the case of rad
ishes and turnips the root is used fol
food, as in the case of the beet. II
the case of the cauliflower food is OBJ
tanned from the blossoms and the
blossom buds.
In the case of the cabbage the hu'
man food is found in the leaves, which
have a tendency to closely cluster
over each other
kot