68 Elementary Species 



Beets are even now found in large quantities 

 along the shores of Italy. They prefer the 

 vicinity of the sea, as do so many other mem- 

 bers of the beet-family, and are not limited to 

 Italy, but are found growing elsewhere on the 

 littoral of the Mediterranean, in the Canary 

 Islands and through Persia and Babylonia to 

 India. In most of their native localities they 

 occur in great abundance. 



The color of the foliage and the size of the 

 roots are extremely variable. Some have red 

 leafstalks and veins, others a uniform red or 

 green foliage, some have red or white or yellow 

 roots, or exhibit alternating rings of a red and 

 of a white tinge on cut surfaces. It seems only 

 natural to consider the white and the red, and 

 even the variegated types as distinct varieties, 

 which in nature do not transgress their limits 

 nor change into one another. In a subsequent 

 lecture I will show that this at least is the rule 

 with the corresponding color-varieties in other 

 genera. 



The fleshiness or pulpiness of the roots is still 

 more variable. Some are as thick as the arm 

 and edible, others are not thicker than a finger 

 and of a woody composition, and the structure 

 of this woody variety is very interesting. The 

 sugar-beet consists, as is generally known, of 

 concentric layers of sugar-tissue and of vascu- 



