452 



BIOLOGY FOR BEGINNERS 



members of the pea family to which also belong the clover, lo- 

 cust, etc. 



The legumes are very valuable foods, rich in proteid and starch, 

 have little water or oil and hence keep well, though their proteid 

 (legumin) is not so easily digested as animal forms. 



Nuts. Nuts are larger 

 and richer in proteid and 

 oil than grains or legumes 

 but are less used for food, 

 because the crop takes too 

 long to mature and is too 

 bulky to store. Nuts also 

 contain so much oil that 

 they do not keep nor digest 

 well. 



The chestnut has little 

 oil and more starch than 

 other varieties. It is used 

 for food in Europe as are 

 also walnuts and pecans, to 

 some extent, while the 

 people of the tropics use 

 coconuts, peanuts, and 

 Brazil-nuts because cereals 

 do not thrive in such 



climates. 



FIG. 140. Coconut Palm (Cocos r\*\* Q A T? A r f 

 nucifera, Palm Family, Palmacea}. Plants 



in fruit showing general form. (Baillon.) fa is a very valuable seed 

 The columnar trunk rises to a height of food product. It IS the 

 bears bright green leaves seed Qf ft fleshy beny ^^ 



on a shrub about 15 feet 

 high. Coffee belongs to the same family as quinine and madder 

 (a dye plant) as well as our common bluets, partridge berry, and 

 bed straw, and grows only in tropical regions, mainly in Brazil, 

 Arabia, and the East Indies. 

 Cocoa is more valuable as a food than coffee, though less used. 



