APPENDIX B. 



VEGETABLE FOOD-STUFFS. 



The Plant-body, containing as it does digestible proteids, carbohydrates, 

 and fats, together with certain mineral salts, is a natural food for Man, 

 Primitive Man used what Nature supplied. But with civilisation came 

 cultivation of the selected plants which best met his needs. Continued 

 cultivation led to improvement in quantity and quality of the crop ; 

 and though certain supplies are still drawn from natural sources, it is 

 the cultivated plants that yield by far the greater proportion of the 

 vegetable foods. They are so varied in origin, and in the parts used, 

 that an exact scientific classification is difficult. They may be roughly 

 grouped for practical study under four heads : as (i) Roots and Shoots, 

 (ii) Legumes, (iii) Fruits, and (iv) Cereal grains. Naturally the parts 

 where the material is stored compactly for the use of the Plant itself 

 are those which are of most value to Man. It is to the roots and tubers, 

 and to the fruits and seeds that he looks for his best supplies of food. 

 On the other hand, in the kitchen garden profuse vegetation is en- 

 couraged so as to obtain in the shortest possible time a large quantity 

 of succulent tissue, with the least proportion of woody fibre. Halo- 

 phytes have provided many of the original stocks from which garden 

 vegetables have sprung. The original sources of Cabbage, Sea-Kale, 

 Beet, Asparagus, and Spinach were all coastal plants, while the Potato 

 and Carrot are at home on marine sands. 



The analysis of average samples affords some knowledge of the 

 feeding value of each. The results of such analyses for a few of the 

 vegetable foods in common use are given in the following tables, which 

 have been extracted from Konig's Die menschlichen Ndhrungs- und 

 Gennss-MiUel, and other sources. But there may be considerable 

 variation from sample, and the figures should be held as a guide to an 

 estimate of feeding-value rather than as any exact statement applicable 

 to all cases. 



The Potato {Solanuni tuberosum, L. Solanaceae) grows abundantly 

 on the sand of the sea-shore in the archipelago of S. Chih (Fig. 138, 

 p. 185). At the time of the discovery of America its cultivation was 

 practised with every appearance of ancient usage from Chili to New 

 Grenada. It was introduced probably in the latter half of the sixteenth 

 century into Virginia and North Carolina, and imported into Europe at 

 the time of Raleigh's Virginian voyages, between 1580 and 1585, first by 

 the Spaniards and afterwards by the English. The tubers, which are 



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