Cultivated Elementary Species 71 



monly included in four subspecies. The two 

 smallest are the salad-beets and the ornamental 

 forms, the first being used as food, and ordinar- 

 ily cultivated in red varieties, the second be- 

 ing used as ornamental plants during the fall, 

 when they fill the beds left empty by summer 

 flowers, with a bright foliage that is exceedingly 

 rich in form and color. Of the remaining sub- 

 species, one comprises the numerous sorts culti- 

 vated as forage-crops and the other the true 

 sugar-beets. Both of them vary widely as to 

 the shape and the size of the roots, the quality 

 of the tissue, the foliage and other characteris- 

 tics. 



Some of these forms, no doubt, have origi- 

 nated during culture. Most of them have been 

 improved by selection, and no beet found in the 

 wild state ever rivals any cultivated variety. 

 But the improvement chiefly affects the size, the 

 amount of sugar and nutrient substances and 

 some other qualities which recur in most of the 

 varieties. The varietal attributes themselves 

 however, are more or less of a specific nature, 

 and have no relation to the real industrial 

 value of the race. The short-rooted and the 

 horn-shaped varieties might best be cited as 

 examples. 



The assertion that the sundry varieties of 

 forage-beets are not the result of artificial selec- 



