HERBAGE-VEGETABLES 53 
Fic. 43.—Beet. A, root. B, leaf. C, small flowering branch. D, a flower 
just opened. J, vertical section of a flower-bud showing a bract, (6), a 
layer of crystals in the ovary wall, k, and, nectar glands (d, d). F, 
stamen, back view. G, a flower the same as D but older. 4H, seed. 
J, the same cut in half, to show seed-coat and the germ coiled around 
the seed-food in the center. A-—C, reduced, D—J variously enlarged. 
(Baillon, Volkens.) 
get as much nutriment from them as from grains or pulse, a 
very much larger amount must be eaten. It should not be 
supposed, however, that the indigestible parts of what we 
eat are altogether useless; for it has been observed in various 
experiments that digestive organs commonly work to better 
advantage when the nutritious materials undergoing diges- 
tion are present not in concentrated form but diluted, as it 
were, with a certain amount of finely divided cellulose or 
other harmless material which may act mechanically. 
36. Herbage-vegetables may be defined as those which 
yield us nutriment in shoots developed above ground. They 
