ROOTS AND TUBERS WE EAT l6l 



have very large leaves, and the roots often rise 

 partly out of the ground. 



One race of beets has been developed as orna- 

 mental plants, the foliage beets , used in Europe for 

 carpet bedding and borders of flower gardens. 

 The ribs and veins of the leaves are high-colored, 

 and the varieties differ in form and coloring. 



Even the garden beets are second in importance 

 to the sugar beets , a race that furnishes the sugar 

 grown in temperate climates. 



Sugar beets are usually small varieties, with 

 small tops, the flesh white or yellow. The taper- 

 ing root goes deep and drinks in the soil moisture, 

 which is the raw material out of which the leaves 

 manufacture the sugar. That is stored away in 

 the fleshy root, and later extracted by machinery. 



To understand how the beet was made a sugar- 

 producing plant we must know its way of making 

 seed. It is biennial. That means it takes two 

 years to complete its growth. The first year is 

 consumed in producing a leafy top and a fleshy 

 root. Then the top dies and the plant rests. 

 Next spring the top sends up a flower stem, and 

 the flesh of the root is absorbed by the flowers and 

 seed pod as they form. When the seeds are ripe 

 the root and stem are withered and dead. They 

 have done their work. Each wrinkled seed case, 



