10 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



as the sources of their reproduction in the following 

 year. 



Tubers, equally with seeds, may be considered as 

 store-houses of nutriment for the sustenance of the 

 germ in the early stages of its growth, before its 

 roots and leaves are expanded, and it has thence 

 become capable of assimilating other substances for 

 its own nutrition. Such parts of the plants which 

 answer best for adoption as the substantive food of 

 man, are thus living vegetables in a dormant state ; 

 and the moment that the germ which they contain 

 has begun to vegetate, they undergo a change both 

 in regard to their taste and nutritive qualities, and 

 become less qualified for affording nourishment to 

 man. 



Farinaceous seeds are divided into two classes : 

 the first of these are the seeds of annual plants, 

 which are the true grasses, or plants of similar 

 properties. They ar? styled the CEREAI.IA * corn- 

 plants, or grain-bearing plants. That one among 

 them upon which any people depends chiefly for its 

 food, is called by that people corn ; as wheat in 

 England, oats in the northern lowlands of Scot- 

 land, rye in the sandy districts on the southern shores 

 of the Baltic Sea, and maize throughout the United 

 States of America. 



The second division of farinaceous seeds is also 

 yielded by plants which for the most part are of 

 annual growth, and these seeds being contained in 

 pods or legumes, such plants are styled leguminous 

 or podded : they are likewise known by the generic 

 name of pulse. 



The corn plants are all annuals, both in their stems 

 and roots, the whole plant dying after the seed has 

 fully formed and ripened, and sometimes even before 

 the latter process has been perfectly accomplished. 



* From Ceres, the goddess of Corn. 



