ROOTS AND TUBERS. 3 



region of Canada as far west as the Saskatchewan, and from thence 

 southward to Arkansas and the middle parts of Georgia." * 



The tubers, instead of containing starch, like the potato, have an 

 allied substance inulin. The chief ingredients are : Water, 80 per cent. ; 

 albuminoids, 2 per cent. ; gum (known as levulm), 9*1 per cent. ; 

 sugar, 4*2 per cent. ; inulin, I'l per cent. The nutrient ratio is 1*8, 

 the nutrient value being 16. f 



This plant does not often blossom in England, but I have a specimen 

 in flower from Hitcharn, Suffolk, about the middle of the last century. 

 It flowers regularly near Cape Town. 



BEET. 



It is generally conceded that beetroot is the cultivated form of the 

 maritime species, Beta mariiim.a, L., or a variety olBeta vulg&ris, L., as 

 well as probably the species itself, under which Linnaeus groups the 

 red, yellow, and pale green sorts. He considers the white or pale beet 

 Beta Cicla, L. The wild slender-rooted plant grows along the coasts 

 of the Mediterranean to Persia and Babylon, as well as in West India. 

 It is also wild round the coasts of England and from Denmark 

 southwards. 



The ancient Greek name was Teutlon, and the Latin Beta. Pliny 

 says the Greeks distinguished two sorts, the black and white, referring to 

 the dark and pale foliage, as they did not eat the root. " Beet is mostly 

 eaten with lentils and beans ; it is prepared also in the same way as 

 cabbage, with mustard more particularly." He adds that " when wine 

 in the vat has been deteriorated by assuming a flavour like that of 

 cabbage, its original flavour is restored, it is said, by plunging beet 

 leaves into it." 



In the Middle Ages beet is often mentioned under the names Beta: 

 Bleta, Sicla, Atriplex agrestis and A. domestica; in French, Arache blanc. 

 The juice of the black beet was used on the temples for headache. 



Dodoens (1559) figures the white and black beets, adding a third 

 figure, " another kind of black beet," for the sake of the root, which is 

 " thick and large, like the rape, the taste being between that of the 

 turnip and parsnip. It is eaten with vinegar, pepper, oil and salt." 



That the beetroot was still little known in 1578 appears from 

 Dodoens' " History of Plants," for he thus writes: "There be two 

 sorts of Beetes, the white and the red, and of the red sort there are two 

 kinds, the one having leaves and root like to the White Beete; the other 

 hath a great thicke roote, and is a stranger among us. ... It is very 

 well like to a Rape or Turnep, but very red within and sweeter in taste 

 than any of the other two sorts. . . . The roote of the Romane or 

 strange red Beete is boyled and eaten with oyle and vinegar before 



. . * Sir J. D. Hooker, in Bot. Mag. July 1897. See also Notes on the History 

 of Helianthii* tubrro.xu*, by J. H. Trumbull and A. Gray (Am. Jour. Sci. and 

 Art*, 3rd Dec., vol. xix. 1877). 



t The "nutrient ratio" is the proportion of nitrogenous to carbonaceous 

 ingredients. The " nutrient value " is their sum. 



B 2 



